Besero
by momo-x-11
Summary: A legend has been killed. The creature's power was expected to disappear, forever lost to those who wished to use it for harm. Instead, it broke into 150 pieces. These pieces must protect themselves inside of their new bodies. The chick is what Jane looks like.
1. Chapter 1

Alright, this is my first pokemon fanfic, and I am seriously new to this section. I have no idea what shipping means, I don't know what is "cool" to change so I'm just going to tell you stuff that I'm changing to suit my story.

I'm focusing on the first generation pokemon (because they're awesome) but the rest will be included. Also I'm trying to stay in the Kanto region, but there is no way to write this in one region so forgive (and tell me about) any mistakes I make about where they are, what pokemon are there, timeline, etc. I'm also mixing the game version and the anime in really weird ways that may only make sense to me (For example, Ash defeats the elite four from the red, blue, and yellow games). I'll try to be as clear as I can to avoid confusion. Roll with it? Or say "hey, I don't know what the hell is going on."

This is an OC-centric story, but familiar characters will be playing lead roles.

Oh and I'm adding a Pokemon of my own creation. Just one; I promise.

What the hell is shipping? Seriously.

* * *

_"Ash Ketchum has defeated the Elite Four! He is the region's youngest champion ever!"_

_"Pokemon champion, Ash Ketchum has been chosen to be the new Pallet Town Gym's leader. The decision was made by..."_

_"Just two years after becoming champion, Ash Ketchum is here cutting the ribbon at the grand opening of the Pallet Town Gym, where he will take his first challengers in just four minutes..."_

_"This once sleepy town has been growing at an impossibly fast rate for the last three years. Some say this is credited to the arrival of the gym and the popularity of leader..."_

_"Up next: Pallet Town Gym Running out of challengers? The undefeated Ash Ketchum is feared by some to be too good of a trainer. What this could mean for the young gym leader's..."_

Before the Pallet Town Gym was built, the sun would have to rise over tall, healthy trees to shine on Delia Ketchum's modest house. Today, the light was delayed over an hour by the beams and cranes that had arrived across the street. A new pokemon center, department store hybrid was being built. Delia refused to let her house be torn down before the new one was furnished and rather than move in with family or a (paid for) motel, she felt they would be more comfortable if they just weathered the noise, dust, and occasional visits by the workers asking to use the restroom. Because of this, her son would be woken up everyday at six in the morning until either the construction was completed, his mother finally relented and allowed herself to be put in a hotel, or he strangled the lead contractor with his nice black belt he wore to "fancy" places.

Today, Ash Ketchum awoke to the sounds of jackhammers and other, various machinery before the sunlight touched the tip of his roof. His mother was also awake. This was not due to the construction, she had always been an early riser. She had the workers beat by an hour and the sunrise beat by a good thirty minutes. Sounds and smells of breakfast reached Ash's bedroom, waking the boy further.

Knowing he was not going to be able to get back to sleep, Ash rubbed his eyes, yawned, and lifted himself out of the bed, forgetting that he was not in _his_ bed and smacking his forehead on the wooden planks that held up the mattress for the top bunk.

His mother noticed the red mark when he entered the kitchen and laughed.

"Ash, that's the fourth time you've hit your head. Your cousins get out of bed without bonking themselves, why can't you?"

Ash sat down at the simple table and rubbed the sore spot. He huffed at her question.

"They _fit_ in it."

Delia laughed again.

"Sorry, sweetie. I guess I kept those beds in there in case your aunt sent them to me again. It just seems like a waste of energy to put your old bed back when the new house is so close to being finished." She stirred the pan slowly with the wooden spoon, thinking. "Why don't you take another trip? It's been a while since the last one. The new house should be ready when you get back, and you can have a proper bed again. How does that sound?"

Delia set a flowery porcelain plate in front of her son and filled it with a generous helping of her food. Ash took the fork his mother handed him and shoveled some of it into his mouth. In between chewing, he replied, "Yeah, maybe."

"Great! Well, you should get ready to go to the gym! You're behind on your quota for this month, let's not upset the board members! They won't want to give you vacation time. Mimey, could you get Ash his pants?"

The Mr. Mime Ash had just recently gotten used to having around the house suddenly appeared from under the table and pushed a pair of blue jeans into Ash's face.

"Mr. Mime!" the pokemon cried over Ash's muffled shouts.

In the living room, Pikachu opened one sleepy eye. He stretched out on the couch he had been resting on and went back to sleep until Ash would wake him up to head to the gym.

xxxxx

"It's Ash Ketchum!"

"Ash! Are you going to take a challenger today?"

"Can I hold your Pikachu?"

Ash had reached the end of his driveway and then the crowd of young trainers mobbed him. Like always. For the most part he ignored the crowds. Over the years, the crowds shrank, maybe bored with his fame or his refusal to speak to them. But, there were still the children; new trainers ready to prove themselves at his gym.

These trainers. Not one of them older than thirteen. Pokeballs bouncing hopefully on their hips or shining merrily in their hands. Ash tried to place their pokemon to them. A Rattata for that one, a Caterpie for this girl. That tanned boy looked like he had traveled, maybe a Totodile or a Hoothoot.

The girl ended up owning a Pidgey. Ash sent out Pikachu, who shocked the little pokemon into a deep paralysis and double kicked it into the stands. The Pidgey remained in the broken section of seats, unresponsive to the trainer's calls. The referee waited ten seconds before ruling the battle as a loss for the girl.

"Pidgey is unable to battle. Ash Ketchum is the winner!"

The little girl did not wait for the referee to call the match, she was already digging her pokemon out of the rubble. The Pidgey was unconscious and in need of a pokemon center, but there was no permanent damage. The girl quickly recalled the pokemon to the pokeball and burst into angry tears. She pointed hatefully towards Ash and his Pikachu.

"You're nothing but big... JERKS!"

The word hung around the quiet gym after the girl stormed out. Seizing this opportunity, the referee crept out.

Ash and Pikachu stood alone in the arena. Ash was long used to the angry outbursts of a young trainer whose dreams were destroyed. Pikachu, however, never developed the tough skin Ash had. He sat down in the middle of the battlefield and stared at the door the girl had run through, pointed ears drooping.

Ash knelt next to his pokemon friend and patted his furry yellow head. "Hey, buddy," he said to get Pikachu to turn around, "Let's get something to eat and take the rest of the day off. Sound good?"

The pokemon had no time to answer. From directly behind him -a few inches to maybe a foot- a familiar, strong voice frightened Ash into letting out an embarrassingly high pitched shout and jumping two feet in the opposite direction.

"Only one today, Mr. Ketchum?" the voice said. This voice belonged to Kisaragi Nagisa, personal assistant to the president of the board of the Kanto region gym league. There were rumors of her holding more power than the vice president, and she looked every bit that part.

A designer handbag hung from the same arm two large diamond rings adorned. Her dark hair was meticulously cut into a bob that just barely touched the pearl necklace clasped around her neck. This, along with a white silk shirt and coal pencil skirt said three things: money, power, and responsibility.

Her manicured fingers danced along the surface of the electronic tablet in her arm, and behind her signature horn-rimmed sunglasses, her eyes followed them.

"You didn't take any challengers yesterday," she said, reciting the information on her gadget, "and you only had three the day before that. That makes twelve for the month. Now I have a question for you."

A chill ran down Ash's back. He could not prove it, but he felt her glaring at him.

"What is your quota this month?"

Ash kept his head lowered, but Pikachu was at his feet worriedly looking up at him, so he switched his gaze to across the room. "Fifty. Can I go now?" he asked, softly.

There was a moment of emotionless silence, and then a heavy and uncharacteristic sigh from Kisaragi. She put away her tablet and took off the sunglasses. Ash glanced at her briefly, and saw for the first time that her eyes were brown. Her voice held what could have been mistaken for care or pity, another first for Ash, who had only ever experienced the robotic tone.

"I want to help you, Ash," she said, and as far as Ash could tell, meant it, "In the beginning, it was great that you were undefeated, preferred, even. But, if no one can win a badge from you, then no one will challenge you. No challengers means **no money** is coming into the gym. The League has been forced into accepting badges from the other regions. Because of that, the other gyms in Kanto are losing challengers. I'm doing what I can to hold off the board, but you're not making my job easy. If you would just give away one badge..."

Ash bent down unnaturally and became suddenly very preoccupied with smoothing the fur on top of his yellow friend's head. Pikachu's worried stare was now hinted with confusion.

Kisaragi's sympathy had run its course. She pushed the glasses back onto her face, and turned towards the exit quickly. Ash was stubbornly going to refuse her advice, as he always did, and she would have to make this visit again in a week. She was already halfway out of the arena when she paused. She hesitated for a few seconds but did not turn back to look at him when she spoke.

"I'll do what I can to get your quota lowered. And convince them to look the other way about the badges. Is that enough? Will you work with me, then?"

She did not expect an answer and Ash did not give her one. She left without waiting. The large electronic doors swished closed. Ash stopped his overlong charade of pretending to pet his Pokemon and stood.

"She doesn't understand, does she?" he said to the silence. "But you do. We can't give badges to trainers who don't deserve it."

Pikachu wanted to nod, but truthfully, Ash had become a mystery to him.

He understood what winning badges meant back when Ash was eleven, but was having trouble grasping the gym leader side of it. They were so excited when the first of the challengers were defeated (they both loved to win) and then suddenly Ash grew quieter. He began leaving immediately after the challengers were beat and avoided talking with his electric friend about the battles. When he did, it was cryptic and sarcastic, as if daring anyone to try to understand him.

Their bond was fading and Pikachu honestly did not know if Ash could see it. Still, Pikachu did not want to hurt his friend, so he would try to support him as best he could.

He nodded anyway.

"Yeah. Let's go to the cafeteria."

The Pallet Town gym was highly anticipated by everyone in the Kanto region. After the Veridian City Gym closed its doors, every new development concerning the replacement was covered in great detail by the local news and when the location and leader was finally named, the world news. Ash was among those buzzing with excitement. He dreamed of an arena only a teenager aged thirteen could dream. Manned cameras that displayed the entire fight on the largest screen in the region for the huge crowd that would fill the bleachers at every one of his battles, a separate training arena just for him, a large open field for his pokemon and sometimes other trainers pokemon to play with, and a center for teaching skills to fledgling trainers that he could hold every weekend.

He had no part in designing the place. The result was a technologically advanced ode to the discovered types of Pokemon in the form of a museum-esque gallery right as you walk through the main entrance, complete with a slowly rotating holographic mural of the most popular pokemon in Kanto that made the trip along the walls of the entrance hall every two hours. The outside was an even more flashy attempt at being cutting edge, what with the steely, asymmetrical walls and the dance of colored, flashing lights that played on the front of the building at night. A standard, dirt battlefield, scoreboard, and judge arena was to the left of the hall. Go to the right, and you would hit the public cafeteria/gift shop, where you could learn a few facts off of the walls about the exploits of Ash Ketchum (like the date he won the P1 Grand Prix with his old Primeape) and purchase a novelty pokeball that held a different battle scene when you looked into the release button part (most featured Ash's Pikachu). If you walked straight from the entrance to the back, a restroom, a storage area, an office that Ash had never been inside of, and an employee break room would greet you.

Ash and Pikachu were in the cafeteria, which was empty and previously locked as it is on Sundays. Thanks to print reading sensors next to the doors, only he and the higher ups could get around the gym when the doors were locked, and of course the janitor. In fact, the only other person in the gym this morning was Tony, the janitor. Luckily, the absent cooks did not mean they would go hungry. From behind the cash register counter, Ash grabbed a packaged pastry and a bag of dried fruit for Pikachu. They sat at the table and spent the first few minutes of their meal in silence. After half of his pastry, Ash shared what had him thinking so hard.

"Mom's right. The trip to the Nacrene City gym was more business than pleasure. How would you feel about taking a break from all of this?"

Pikachu's enthusiastic bites at his apple slices slowed to a stop.

"We can visit Castelia and see the Dragonspiral Tower and then we can battle some of the gym leaders. Drayden especially. It'll be fun."

The pokemon sensed that Ash was becoming too entranced with this potentially harmful idea, and spoke a warning.

"Pi-pika. Pikachu." '_The challengers_,' he was saying, '_The quota._'

Ash pinched a yellow ear, pretending to admonish the pokemon.

"Of course we'll be careful," he said, confusing Pikachu for a while, until he realized Ash had misunderstood him. "Sure it's been awhile, but we used to be pros at traveling. And I'm older now, so it should be even easier." Ash smushed Pikachu's head down jokingly. Pikachu reacted accordingly, although it was hard to get into a playful mood.

Ash leaned back and sighed. The idea ran through his head repeatedly, becoming clearer and more tangible each time he went over it. Pikachu sighed as well, and returned to his snack; Ash would sooner or later realize that his plan could only ever be a fantasy.

As if on cue, a sour look passed over the boy's face and he whispered to himself, "The board members... How are we going to get them off our backs?"

He had not started to ponder this for more than three seconds, when a pounding on the cafeteria doors knocked the thought clear out of his head. The two were not exactly startled, but Ash's voice had a wary edge to it when he asked who it was.

Three more knocks answered him, louder this time. Ash called out again.

"Tony? Is that you?" When he still did not receive an answer, he rose from his chair and made his way to the doors. Pikachu jumped on his shoulder protectively. "It's pretty clean in here Tony. You can go home; everybody else left."

He lifted his hand to place on the sensor for opening the door, when four even louder knocks caused him to jump a bit and Pikachu to also let out a small charge. Feeling the electricity in the air, Ash turned to look at the pokemon.

"Hey," he started with a laugh, "Relax. It's only Tony," he hoped.

Now thoroughly fed up with his skittishness over a few sounds, Ash quickly placed his palm on the sensor. The doors whirred open and a stinging liquid was sprayed onto his face making direct contact with his eyes.

Ash's immediate thought was of a an acid attack, and the next was of the attack he could call out as soon as he was done screaming in pain. Just as he fell back and was about to yell 'thundershock', the "attacker" beat him with his own shout.

"Oh shit, did I get you dude?"

Three minutes later, multiple gallons of water wasted, and Ash could see again. He could see that his eyes and the skin surrounding was as red as the pokeballs on his belt and also Tony leaning against the sink next to him. He was reading the back of a spray bottle of cleaning solution- most likely the one Ash had the pleasure of coating his eyeballs with.

"Think we should call the poison center?" Tony asked as Ash held his head under the tap and did his best to keep his eyes open. "It says flush 'em out and call some poison control place. What the hell is that, anyway? Whatever. Wanna call? Nah, I guess you're alright." at this time he smacked Ash on his back, "Why didn't you say you were behind there, dumbass?"

Ash looked up to give Tony a well-deserved glare, and broke when he saw the easy grin he was sporting on his heavily pierced face. That, plus the green mohawk should have kept him from working at the Pallet Town Gym, but his father had donated the scoreboard.

"I did," Ash grumbled and went back to pouring water in his eyes.

"You what? Oh! I had my headphones in. That's probably why I couldn't hear when I was banging the trash cans against the doors. Ha ha I'm sorry, dude."

Still laughing, he pulled away from the sink and turned to check his hair in the mirror. Ash could not help but notice the grime on the edges of the sink (not to mention the rest of the bathroom) and how cleaning that would be a better use of his time. Tony made no effort to see the mess and continued to admire his features.

In the middle of tugging at the giant gauge in his left ear, he asked, "Hey where is everybody? I know it's Sunday, but I thought we were taking some challengers today since the quota's low."

Now Ash's eyes were returning to their original color and they no longer stung. He pulled some paper towels from the holster and began drying off. "The board has graciously decided to give us the day off," he said behind the paper, "They also apologized for calling us in on a Sunday. You especially."

"Sure they did. I bet Kisaragi came by today, huh? I like you, dude, but I kinda needed the hours from today. Next time you want a day off, do it during the week. That way they can't make us leave."

Ash said nothing.

"Well," Tony started. He pushed away from the sink and lazily raised his arms into a long stretch. "I guess I'm going to get out of here. Do me a favor and put my cart up for me, will ya?" With a parting 'thanks' Tony was gone before Ash could protest.

"Asshole. It's not even that far away," he said to the empty restroom.

The neglected state of the place made him chuckle. He wondered if anyone had ever told Tony how terrible he was at his job. Not that Tony would care. He'd give the comment as much attention as the grime on these mirrors.

Through the film of gunk, Ash saw that he was getting a pimple right in the middle of his forehead. It was not often he would break out, but the teen hated them all the same. Being in the public eye did not help the matter. Pikachu would laugh in his pokemon way whenever Ash would stress himself out over a blemish.

He touched it, not surprised at the tenderness, and planned a skincare regiment solely for that mark. It would have been over at that had the blotch not suddenly throbbed with a surprising amount of pain. He quickly pulled his hand away though it did nothing to stop the ache- it may have even been intensifying. Now, Ash leaned over the sink and pushed his hair back to get a better look at the bump.

It did not look any different from a regular pimple. It may have been a little redder but the tiny bump was unremarkable in any other way. It sure felt different, though. The dull throbbing continued to persist unlike any pimple he'd had before. Ash hissed, not concerned with the abnormal pain, but close to it. He felt maybe some cool water would help bring relief and ran the cold tap for awhile before splashing some onto his face.

Immediately, he swiped at his face in panic when the pain spiked into a searing stab splitting down the middle of his forehead. A strangled cry escaped him as a tremendous pressure steadily built, wrenching his head open between his eyebrows. Through the white haze of agony and tears he could barely make out his own frightened features in the mirror. Horrifically, the bump was getting bigger. It was as wide as his thumb and if he was to touch it (he wouldn't dare, right now) he would feel it grew a quarter of an inch in height.

What could he do? He did not know what was happening to him. Think. What could it be? It hurt unlike anything he'd ever experience. He felt as though something was escaping his head. Microscopic parasites attacked the brain sometimes, he read once, but this could not be it, could it? The pain was unbearable but superficial, not inside of his head, specifically at the forefront of his skull. And it did feel as deep as his skull. He swore it was splintering, about to break through his skin.

The bump was as wide as Pikachu's red cheek circles and now a full three quarter inches high. His skin had turned sickeningly translucent. The white of the bone underneath shined through, and as he suspected jagged edges of what had to be splintered skull roughened the smooth texture of the bump itself underneath his stretched skin. He violently threw up his pastry and much more digested pieces of his mother's breakfast into the sink. In a desperate attempt to keep the illusion of control of his own body, he threw his hand over his mouth and tried to keep his food within him, causing the mess to be directed at everything from his shirt to the floor under the sink he originally was aiming for. A tiny hard chunk of some substance fell into his hand and Ash, afraid it was somehow the bone of his skull, immediately dropped it into the sink.

It was a tooth. And that was not the only one. Another of his canines was sitting two centimeters away from the one he threw in, partially covered in thick, yellow bile. There was no time to feel shock over this; he felt something in his mouth. _Things. _Two of them. He knew they were teeth before he saw them join the other two in the sink.

His hands trembled as he brought them to his face. He pulled on his bottom lip, slipping on the blood that had already turned his chin red. Where the four teeth had previously been (the canines and bicuspids) gaping red holes bled lazily. In the middle of these holes was a single white protrusion to each side. They almost looked like more canines, pointed, and grew fast enough for Ash to visually track. They were emerging much larger than any human tooth, taking up both of the empty spaces of the fallen teeth.

His forehead had torn a long time ago. The blood trickling from the split joined the blood on his chin and ran down to the neckline of his undershirt. Ash paid the bone-like point no attention, or the pain from it. The teeth were growing much faster. They passed the tops of the remaining teeth in height and the width almost completely filled the empty spaces.

Tusks. That's what they looked like. And a horn.

White clouded his vision like mildew film on a long disregarded bathroom mirror. He lost consciousness.

* * *

Tell me what you thought! I know Ash is like REALLY OOC but I like the thought of disillusionment :/

I hope no one is too confused by anything, if so, please tell me! Or tell me something you like! First chapters are always kinda iffy, so I would really REALLY like to hear from you!

Isn't it so cruel that Psyduck always has a headache? ;_; Those sick bastards...


	2. Chapter 2

Hi, again. If there is any confusion please tell me.

Computer problems caused the delay of this chapter. Yell at it all you like in the reviews. It deserves it.

* * *

An iconic nurse with pink loops of hair at either side of her head handed a young male trainer three pokeballs containing three newly healed pokemon.

"We hope to see you again!"

"What do you mean? You want my pokemon to be hurt again? Why would you say that?"

"Look kid, no one _else _questions it. Don't be the first. Go challenge the gym and come back in a week after you've trained some more," Nurse Joy put a finger to her lips and tilted her gaze, "Yes, we hope to see you _in town _again. There ya go! Bye now!"

"Wh-"

"Bye now!"

The disgruntled trainer stomped through the lobby and out the sliding doors. Nobody paid him any mind. Nurse Joy turned back to her computer screen. There were not very many appointments made today. The next hour and a half was going to be very slow and welcome. She set her feet up on the counter and flipped through the magazine on her lap while she waited for the walk-ins' pokemon to heal.

Just as she found her last stopping point, a boy, trying desperately hard to disguise his face with a cap, and a hood, hastily shuffled into the center. The Pikachu on his shoulder balanced unnaturally, not wearing a disguise but wearing a very disturbed expression. The boy kept his head down all the way to the counter. He ran into it. Joy startled and stood.

"Hello an welcome to our... oh, it's you."

The boy jerked his head upwards, shocked.

"Hi, Pikachu," nurse Joy patted the mouse pokemon in a warm greeting. She pushed a lock of pink hair out of her face and then reached out to pull the new trainer's hood up. "Hey, Ash, if you're supposed to be in disguise, why are you wearing your gym leader jacket?"

The jacket Joy referred to had the Pallet Town gym crest on both shoulders and on the chest. The swirled shaped was also displayed proudly below the golden words 'Pallet Town Gym' on the backside. Ash was the only owner of this one of a kind jacket and most everybody in town knew that. He blushed with a mixed feeling of rage and embarrassment, but kept his voice level as he whispered to Joy, "I need your help," he said. His words sounded strange, like he could not quite make the 'P' sound. "Take me to a room, please."

Joy smiled at his red tint and exited her post behind the counter. She doubled back once to put up the 'please wait for assistance' sign. On the way to the room, a passing visitor greeted Ash by name.

xxxxx

"Then Pikachu woke me up and I came here. If I went to a regular hospital they would have sold me out to the media."

Nurse Joy put the pink tinted swab down onto the metal tray. Now that it was clean, she could see that where the skin was broken around the horn, the first signs of clotting were beginning to show. It would heal fine as long as this thing stopped growing.

"Yeah, that's kind of weird," she said, distracted, "Alright, it stopped bleeding. Doesn't look like there'll be much trouble with healing. Try not to poke it too much with your dirty hands." She left Ash's side to put away the disinfectant and swabs and grab the bandages.

"That's great, but what the hell is it?"

"Well," she started, returning with the bandages, "In my professional opinion, I have absolutely no idea."

"You don't have to sound so happy," Ash grumbled, scowling at the grin Joy had come back with. He had to wipe his chin of drool leaking from the corners of his mouth. The extra large teeth were still making it difficult to speak. Not to mention, he could barely keep his mouth closed. Joy handed him a napkin and turned her attention to the two lower protrusions. She put her thumb and forefinger on his lip and pulled down to get a better look.

"These are even more of a mystery," she mused before Ash could jerk away from her hand. She did not react to his hostility. "It's like your canines grew ten times their size. That can't feel good for the rest of your mouth. Your teeth must have shifted something awful."

Ash held out a down facing fist. Confused, Joy put her outstretched hand underneath. He opened his grip. Four fully intact teeth and bits and pieces of maybe one or two more fell into her palm, and then hit the floor after she reflexively yanked her hand away.

"Ah! Dammit Ash!"

Ash chuckled darkly. He felt a little better about his missing teeth now.

"Ok," she huffed, regaining her composure, "that answers that." The final touches were applied to the bandages (final touches being a smiley face sticker right in the middle of where the two large pieces of tape that held the gauze pads down crossed each other). It was a mess of gauze pads layered over and around the protrusion- not very attractive work, but at least it hid the horn. "I don't know what to say, Ash. I've never seen anything like this before. It looks like a bad Briding job. Or a really good one..."

Ash laid his bandaged head in his hands. Nurse Joy was the only medical mind he could trust. If she could not help him, then... what? What was he going to do? Where was he going to go? How could he go back to the gym looking like this? What would his mom say? She would probably think it was briding work, too- something he never once found appealing. That was his only option wasn't it? Pass it off as some extremely successful, crazy surgery and hope no one gets suspicious or looks into it. Oh, the press is going to run this story for months. Journalists, paparazzi, reporters- everyone would hound the only gym leader to go through with Pokebriding.

And the board members... Would they like the extra publicity or would he be kicked from his leadership? And if that happened the interviews would last even longer. He could see the headlines.

From the activists: 'Body modification rights trampled by uncaring corporation'

The tabloids: 'The wild side of Ash Ketchum you've never seen before! And why it cost him his gym'

Using the wrong words: 'Ash Ketchum consigns to career ending surgery'

Blatant lies: 'Ash Ketchum speaks out: "It was something I've always wanted to do. And I paid for it."'

"Ok, I'm going to go get those painkillers for you, now."

Joy must have thought he was in that position because of pain. In reality, the sting from his growths was gone. When he woke up, the only pain he felt was on the back of his head from when he collapsed, even as he picked up splintered pieces of bone off of his forehead . Actually, the back of his head still kind of hurt. He would let her get the painkillers.

He watched her petite, pink uniform clad form stroll out of the room. His head returned to his hands.

Pikachu was not with him. He had found a Rattata to play with in the waiting area and gave Ash a look that said _'will you be ok without me?' _The pokemon had been reacting to the distant attitude Ash had, he thought his trainer might want to be alone with Joy out of shame or maybe to spare Pikachu the bad news. He believed Ash did not want him there. But, oblivious of any distancing moods he was putting off, Ash felt a slight resentment. He believed Pikachu just wanted to play with one of his pokemon buddies, so he left him while he went off to hear the most important diagnosis of his life.

Could he get it reversed? Could he risk that? Pokebriders rarely saw any complications when they had their work changed back or into something different. It could work. He could hope the lab he went to did not ask any questions or contact any T.V. stations or newspapers. But what if it didn't? What if whatever happened to him was permanent? The front of his skull was gone, how were they going to get that back? It could be permanent. He could be kicked out of his gym. That could not happen. What did he have besides his title?

"Crap!"

That came from outside. Just a few feet from the window, judging by how loud it sounded- the window was closed and still it was barely muffled- but when he looked he did not see anything. Whoever it was, did not want to be seen.

They found him so quickly. How? News traveled fast in Pallet Town, but this was impossible. Unless... no, even if Joy called them, it would have been at least ten or fifteen minutes before they could get here. The magazine or news station would have to call the photographer and he would have to get the camera ready and drive here, so they were tipped off by something else. Or it was not paparazzi.

Uncertain as he felt, Ash's next rushed instinct was to hide quickly, before any pictures could be taken. He ducked behind the examination table/seat he was on and pulled his hood up for good measure. This saved him from being injured by shards of flying glass exploding into the room.

Shaken into forgetting his need to hide his face, Ash peeked out from behind the table.

He did not notice the rock that initially shattered the window, but the girl who dove in just after it was easy enough to spot; she created much more damage and noise than the rock. She landed directly on a supplies tray Joy had left sitting out and unwillingly rode it all the way to the door where it crashed and flipped backwards, taking her with it.

"Crap!" she groaned again. Ash quickly pulled back behind his cover, remembering that he should probably be cautious of a woman crazy enough to fly through a closed window. She could be dangerous. Or she could have a camera.

The girl pulled herself up quickly. She was not injured- not bleeding, anyway- though she happened to land on every sharp object she could think of. But injuries were not important. The other was important.

Ash heard small rapid footsteps grow closer. He fought the urge to look for the few seconds he had before he felt himself being pulled from his hiding spot. He was forced to his feet with surprising strength and held until he could steady himself. Confident with his balance, Ash shoved the mysterious girl away.

"What are you doing!" he yelled. Her shushing noise was just as loud as his protesting but not as loud as, say, a rock shattering a window.

Now that he could see her properly, her mysterious strength seemed even more out of place. This girl was at least ten pounds underweight and a good five inches shorter than him. Her yellow dress hung like a bag over her small frame and the purple beanie drooped all the way down to the beginning of her nose. Purple eyes matched the hat's coloring but were in a much better shape. Though her olive skin clung too tightly to her naturally round features, the eyes were bright and focused- untouched by the obvious malnourishment she suffered.

"You have to come with me,"she said in a deeper voice than Ash expected, "It's not safe here. Team Rocket is always in the Pokecenters."

This confused Ash enough to make him temporarily forgive that she manhandled him and broke Joy's window. "What? Of course they're in the centers. They're part owners. What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm trying to save your life," she replied. "Now, come with me. I'll explain everything once we're away from here." While she tried to convince him, she prepared to leap out of the window again by knocking some of the bigger pieces of glass out of the frame. She swept the ledge off and stuck one lanky leg through, pausing to make sure Ash was coming. "Let's go. Now. I know they heard me come in."

Ash saw this as an opportunity to get out of the room and find one of the Team Rocket guards she was warning against. He had enough time to turn his feet towards the door and then the girl was out of the window frame and swinging for his wrist. She growled in exasperation as Ash backed away from her clutches.

"Dude! Seriously, I can't leave you here. Trust me!"

"No, I don't trust you." Ash was becoming just as frustrated as her. He backed away even further as both a warning against reaching for him and also a ploy in order to get closer to the door. "Who are you? What do you want?"

"We don't have time for introductions!" And with that, Ash had enough with her and her unrelenting attitude.

"Joy!" Ash called out, dramatically reaching for the door. It was more to scare the girl into giving him an answer but he was almost to the point of being done with her. "Joy, some crazy girl broke your window! Bring Team Rocket and- oof!"

Ash was grappled to the floor with a knobby shoulder driven deep into his diaphragm. While he was winded, it was hardly a challenge for the girl to flip him onto his stomach and draw his arm up to his shoulder blade. The best he could manage was an awkward squirming movement with his lower body while he gasped for air and drooled on the tile. She put a stop to that as well, goring his rear with one of her knees and his left thigh with the other. He was stuck.

"Don't do that," she growled, "You have no idea what would happen."

Her point made, she loosened her grip to let him go, but did not completely let him up until she was sure he would not strike her. The first thing Ash did with his freedom was clutch his stomach, so, convinced of his non-hostility, she lifted herself off of him.

"Look, I can't _force_ you to come with me-"

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Ash yelled as defiantly as he could from his fetal position. He fell into a fit of coughing after that. The girl knelt down and offered to help him up, but he swiped at her until she stopped.

"Quit being a pain!" she shouted haughtily.

"Quit trying to kidnap me!" he countered, rising finally and still rubbing his abdomen. He could not feel the bandages slipping off of his forehead, so he reacted strongly to her reaching out and sticking them back to his head. Luckily for her, she was fast enough to dodge Ash's surprised hook aimed for her head.

"Keep that on," she huffed, annoyed at the attempted punch, "If someone sees it... what? What are you staring at?"

Ash was staring at her reaction.

She hardly reacted at all. As if she was completely familiar with it, she just reached out and covered his horn back up. And it could not be a mistake for pokebriding. Why would she cover it if she thought it was a pokebriding job? This girl knew something about his change.

"Do you?" He was so lost in thought that he believed this to be a reasonable question. The girl was understandably confused.

"Do I what?"

"Do you know something about my horn?"

The irate tone of their meeting calmed instantly. The teen girl looked at Ash with a quiet, almost sad confusion. Her body relaxed from its tense readiness for the first time as she took a deep breath.

"DUH!"

Her arms flew up in emphasis. "Why else would I be here?"

Despite the attitude, Ash could not deny the relief he felt at hearing this. This painted her in a completely different light. He could overlook her insanity if it would give him answers as to why his face changed. Just one thing:

"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" Ash could not help wanting to show her how frustrating she had been. He was rewarded with a satisfying stunned look. She stumbled over herself a few times, and quickly turned to head back out the broken window.

"I did," she said(lied) with her back turned and her foot on the window ledge. "You didn't hear it. Come on we gotta go." Ash half-stepped towards her. He had not yet made his decision to follow yet, answers or not.

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did," she said(lied) again. There was no winning that argument, Ash would be wasting their time that she was so intent on proving they did not have. And in keeping with that, she was already out of the window and walking away.

"Hey wait!" he yelled, "I have to get my Pikachu!"

On cue, he spotted his yellow friend running across the grass. Pikachu stopped at the base of the girl's feet and looked her over, curiously. She turned around and pointed at the pokemon.

"This one?"

"Yeah, that one..." And with that, Ash knew he had just accidentally agreed to join her.

Nurse Joy would later find a broken window and a missing trainer. Naturally, she assumed he had escaped for some reason or another. Why he had to break the window to do it, she could not guess, but the gym paid for restorations all the time so she was not too bothered. She would probably even forget about it the next time she saw him. The next day, she would find the gym jacket he left behind.

Xxxxx

"Pi?"

"We have to go with this girl for a little while, Pikachu."

"Pika?"

"I don't know if you noticed, but I somehow grew a horn and I would like to remove it or find out where it came from."

Pikachu left his trainer alone, amused. Ash, the girl, and the pokemon continued to travel down the sidewalk that was suspiciously empty of pedestrians. Or perhaps it was only suspicious under the circumstances. It was still pretty early.

Ash's transceiver declared it to be 8:39 am. They had been walking for two minutes (after a mad sprint to get at least a block away from the Pokemon Center) and still, no answers. After she had given him a red bandana to hide his mouth with, she went on, basically without him. She just walked ahead with her nose buried into her paper map. Maybe that could be a jumping point. "You know," he began, "I can plot a course on my electronic one. You just need to tell me where we're going." This did not slow her down or give her reason to turn around and speak to him face to face.

"I got it. Don't worry."

Ash began to feel the familiar annoyance he had come to associate with her in the five or so minutes since they met. "I'll just come out and say it, then. Where are we going?"

"Viridian Forest," she answered simply, clearly paying more attention to the map.

How could she say that like it was nothing?

"That's like a days walk! Why are we going there?" No, he did not want to accompany her all the way to Viridian Forest. That was an absurd request and it was even more absurd that she was not seeing it as such.

"Its the best way to lose Team Rocket." Before Ash could ask why they needed to be running from Team Rocket, she explained herself. "Before I found you, I saw three of them patrolling like they were tracking something. Probably me. Probably not me. I'm not taking any chances." She lowered the map for the first time and glanced around at her surroundings, frowning. Then she dove right back in and continued her trek. "Damn! I can't remember where I left my scooter. My candy was in the trunk. What a bust."

Again, she was being so cavalier while Ash was left in the dark with a million questions and every half-baked explanation she offered only brought more questions. Why was Team Rocket after her? What did it have to do with his change? How did she know about it? She promised him an explanation if they left the Pokecenter. Now was the time to cash that in.

"You owe me an explanation," he said, seriously. She was farther ahead of him, so when she did not answer he repeated himself, louder.

"What?" she called distractedly over her shoulder. He ran up and roughly pulled on her shoulder. Ash's reflexes were not as quick as hers, but when she grabbed his hand and tried to twist it behind his back, he countered by gripping her wrist and shoving forward to knock her off balance. He had no idea where that move came from, but it worked. She ripped away from him and smacked his chest with her crumpled map. "Don't do that! What do you want?" The excitement from successfully countering the attack was beginning to affect his body. Ash found himself yelling.

"You owe me an explanation!"

"Shh!" The map struck his cheek. He did not feel the hit; she put no force into it, but Ash wondered if adrenaline worked that well. "Stop yelling! Ok! You want an explanation and I want to get to Viridian Forest before any Rockets catch up with me. Can we compromise and wait until we're safely in the forest before I go into it?"

"In what way is that a compromise!" The map struck him again a little harder. Ash felt it that time.

"Stop yelling! What do you want me to do? Just stand here and let everyone around know that we're fugitives? Geez, you're clueless!"

Ash was done yelling. He had gone a little lightheaded and his rush had left him. She was so unbelievably frustrating and his empty stomach was making this so much worse, but there was no way they would make any progress if they just stood here yelling at each other. He pinched the bridge of his nose (which required a good amount of maneuvering in order to work around the mess of bandages and colorful sticker).

"I have an idea," he offered. The girl was skeptical of his attitude, but quiet. "There's a little restaurant not far from here. We can talk. Hardly anybody is there this early on Sundays, you don't have to worry." She scoffed when he said there would be few customers. Not a good sign. It was ridiculous that he had to work around her intolerance, but unless he wanted to argue endlessly, he would have to play her game. "We can eat, too. You're hungry, right?" That seemed safe enough; she looked starved.

She _was _starved. So starved that she was quickly deciding how long to wait until she could agree to Ash's idea. "I don't know..." she stalled. "What if a Rocket decides he wants to get breakfast?" To her, that sounded lame, but her stomach was not giving her brain much time to think of a better excuse.

"They provide good meals at their Pallet Town Base. It'll be unlikely." A half-second later, the girl had her answer.

"Ok, if we have to."

And that's how the teens almost overcame pride to come to their first agreement.

Xxxxx

The restaurant was not as small as Ash had made it sound. The girl had to accept it. On a full stomach she would have refused to go in, but the last real meal she had eaten was three days ago. She had been surviving on nothing but spring water and what plants she could find, since.

This place could have held forty people comfortably, fifty less comfortably, and sixty if they needed to squish. It was a quaint, old fashioned little eatery connected to a small clothing store and an insurance office on either side. The outside was tan brick with a simple black and white sign that read 'Green's' in cursive lettering. The inside was less dated than the outside, and impeccably clean. The booth seats were a simple peach color. If you looked closely, you could see small flowers in the texture that matched the larger flowers that the black metal seat backings of the chairs were bent into. The lights were shut off in the front, thus allowing the sunlight to illuminate the area instead. This made it feel more peaceful, somehow.

Ash and the girl sat at the booth in the far back, where the sunlight could not touch them. Four other people- not counting the staff- shared the restaurant with them, though they all chose to sit in the front. It must have been odd for them to see two teens and a Pikachu jog in with their heads hidden under a cap and jacket, and quickly hide their faces behind a menu when they reached the booth farthest from the other customers.

The girl knew she was supposed to be focused on watching out for Team Rocket and not being seen, but she had just caught sight of the pictures of food on the menu. Her stomach churned loudly in want. Everything looked so good and the smell of bread was so tempting. Ash never thought he would see someone so hungry. He could not help but feel pity for her. Instead of drawing attention to her extreme focus on the menu, he looked over his own. The owner working as a waitress came a while later to take their orders. She recognized Ash instantly.

"Ash Ketchum, is that you!" she cried joyously, "We haven't seen you here in ages! Oh no, you gotta give me a hug, sugar!"

The large middle aged woman lifted Ash out of his seat in a bear hug and bounced him up and down merrily. She smelled overwhelmingly of sugar and pastry and her curly red hair all but choked Ash as her massive arms held him captive. The woman called to the kitchen loudly, right next to Ash's ear. "Marty! Marty, get out here and say hi to Ash!"

A balding man as small as the woman was big poked his round head out of the swinging doors and beamed when he saw the suffocating boy. He burst forth, still carrying a hot pot of some sort of soup. "Ash Ketchum! You see Izzy, I told you he'd be back! This is his favorite cafe! I-Isabelle... Isabelle! You're choking the poor boy!"

The woman unceremoniously dropped him onto the booth that was not nearly as soft when falling from a three foot height. Ash rubbed his bottom and his sides and tried his best to look like he was smiling behind the bandana.

"Hey, Isabelle. Martin. How have you been?"

Isabelle invited her formidable behind into Ash's booth while her husband and business partner sat demurely next to Ash's female company. Pikachu allowed his head to be pet by the familiar face. The girl stared sadly at her menu, wondering if anyone was going to take her order.

"Oh, we've been doing great!" Isabelle bellowed unnecessarily loud. She also could not keep her hands off of the boy. She held his hand in her own giant ones and stroked lovingly. "Ever since you gave that interview, we have more regulars than we know what to do with!" She laughed for no apparent reason and then pinched Ash's cheek. If she had been unable to contain her voice why should Ash have expected her to know her strength? She was going to rip his cheek off, no doubt about it- or knock off his bandana, which was infinitely worse. "Look at you! You're still the little heartbreaker. But why are you covering your face?" Ash's cheek was mercifully released, but his horn was jabbed at just as roughly by a freckled, meaty finger. He pulled away before she could pull down the red cloth, hopefully not in a rude manner.

"I, uh, fell. On my face. It's really nasty under there, you don't want to see it."

"Izzy, don't poke at his injuries," Martin scolded from across the table. The hot pot of soup had mysteriously disappeared but he was inexplicably carrying a spatula now. "The thing is swollen enough as it is. Did a battle get a little too heated for you, Ash?"

Ash nodded uncomfortably. Both Martin and Isabelle laughed.

"How is the gym, Hun-Bun?" Isabelle asked. She had finally calmed down enough to quiet into a regular person's shout, and she had taken to rubbing his shoulder. "We don't see ya on the news as much. You doing ok over there?"

Ash's uncomfortable smile strained, but being, behind the bandana, nobody could see it. He nodded and said it was fine.

"That's wonderful!"

"Yes, it is," Martin agreed. "By the way," he added, with a sly sideways look at the female teen. "Who's your friend?" Ash jumped at the chance to turn the attention away from him.

"Oh! This is... uh- She..." Oh, wow, she never told him her name. Come to think of it, he never told her his name either. He looked at her helplessly.

The girl wondered if she had told him her name yet- well, the name she fed everybody. He was waiting so did that meant she hadn't? Didn't she tell him at the Pokemon Center? Yes, she almost certainly did. He probably forgot.

"Jane," she answered after a painful pause. "I'm Jane, and this is Ash." Isabelle's smile disappeared, which was an absolutely horrifying site given her size. Her tone was almost snobbish, completely opposite of her usual jubilant demeanor.

"We know who _he _is." The entire group, minus Isabelle, tensed. The woman's naturally booming volume made this seem like a threat. Maybe that was how she wanted it to sound. "What are your intentions for my Ash?" She leaned over the groaning table just as the girl who called herself Jane tried to shrink into the booth.

"I just met him. We're friend's," she answered quickly. 'Please don't hurt me', she wanted to add.

Isabelle squinted her eyes. She nodded softly, and that should have put Jane at ease, but no. When she was gone, _that_ would put Jane at ease. "I believe you," Isabelle declared. Then her mood lifted and she grabbed Ash into a headlock.

"You little knucklehead! You're too young for girlfriends!" She gave a hearty laugh and finally left Ash to sit in his booth alone. "Watch out young lady," she cheerily warned, terrifying Jane again, "I've got my eye on this one. He's like the son I never had."

"We have four sons, Izzy," Martin stated as he began to return to kitchen. The pot of soup had reappeared and he was stirring it with a wooden spoon.

"None of them are Pokemon Champions!" she called back to him. "Oh no!" she cried. Jane flinched reflexively. Ash was able to fight his. "Here I am, gabbing away like a wild Loudred when you three are starving to death!" She pulled a tiny pink notepad from her black apron pocket and a large blue pen from her ear. "What'd you want to order, pumpkins?"

Jane suddenly remembered exactly how hungry she was and forgot all of the horror she had just experienced. She recovered fast enough to cut off Ash's order. "I wanted to start off with the artichoke dip, and-"

"Oh, let me stop you there!" Isabelle hastily scribbled something onto her pad and then put both pen and paper away. "I know exactly what to surprise you with! Be back in a sec!" She bounced all the way into the kitchen, leaving Ash and Jane holding their menus uselessly.

"She didn't even take my drink order..." Jane whimpered. Her stomach grumbled in support. Ash's stomach was feeling a bit restless as well. It remembered it had expelled the breakfast it contained earlier.

"I bet its the soup," he thought out loud, "They always start with it. That's ok. They make good soup."

"Um, Ash Ketchum?"

The teens snapped to attention. Now that the commotion had settled down around Ash's booth, one of the four customers gained the courage to approach her idol that she would not have recognized if Isabelle had not been so excited. Jane took it upon herself to make sure that the timid girl would no longer feel comfortable. She slammed her fists on the table.

"Do you work for Team Rocket!" She yelled. The frail woman nearly fainted.

"N-no..." she peeped.

"Are you a waitress!"

"No, I'm sorry!"

"Then, I don't care." Jane groaned and sprawled over the table, banging her head repeatedly on the red place-mat. Pikachu rubbed her shoulders sympathetically. "Chu." Ash scowled at her behavior.

"I'm sorry, she gets like this when she's hungry," he explained for the woman's sake. The blonde smiled at him, dismissing the starving girl, but not easily. "It's ok," she said, politely. She reached into her very expensive looking purse and pulled out a pokeball that had purple rhinestones glued to it in the shape of a heart and a permanent marker. With her head bowed, she held them out for Ash to take.

"Can you sign this for me, please?"

Ash smirked and took the items from her. His acceptance brightened her red face. She buzzed with excitement as she watched Ash scrawl his signature. It seemed a little plain so he wanted to add a message. "Who's in here?" he asked, conversationally.

"It's my Lopunny," she replied, beaming, "I'm not much of a battler, but we've been practicing to get into the Pokemon Contest in Saffron City next month."

"Oh, that's nice... here you go."

He handed the pokeball and marker back. She snatched them from his hand and spun the ball around in her palm until she could see the writing. She read it out loud: "'Good luck in your training, Lopunny -Ash Kethum' Eeeee! Thank you!" It surprised the table when she hopped closer to Ash and attacked him with a hug. His hand knew to hold onto the bandages, and his other awkwardly patted her on the back. She let go after a few seconds and stuffed her things back into her purse. "Thank you so much!" she squealed again, "Ah! I have to go tell my sister!" In record time, she was back at her table tossing her payment in the general area and out of the door before the money could even land.

Ash watched her leave, shaking his head at her behavior, but of course his ego was not exactly displeased with the attention. When he turned back, a mug of black coffee sat directly in front of him and Jane was chugging what looked like orange juice. Pikachu was lapping at a small bowl of water next to her. A bowl of unspecified pokemon food waited for him as well. For a thundering woman, Isabelle could sure be fast and silent when she wanted to be. Jane noticed him staring.

"Yeah, she was here like a second ago," she breathlessly stated in between giant gulps, "She said the creamer was on the bar. French vanilla is in the black one."

Isabelle also had a good memory. Ash picked up his mug and traveled with it to the bar, where he added too much cream and sugar- just how he liked it. When he came back, two bowls of minestrone soup had mysteriously appeared. One of the bowls was being drunk by Jane, who did not have the patience for silverware. He was certain she was going to choke, minestrone soup was even chunkier the way Martin made it.

Ash would not have to perform the heimlich maneuver today; Jane dropped the empty bowl on her table with a clink and a loud sigh. She wiped the remains off of her chin and settled back into the cushioning, content (for now.)

"She was right. That was good."

Ash nodded and sipped at his coffee, a little awed by how quickly she devoured the first course. He stared at his cup so that he would not stare at her and make the scene more awkward than it needed to be. Now that her stomach was settled until the entree came around, Jane was able to think clearly and ponder the boy she picked up.

Ash Ketchum, they said his name was. It sounded familiar for whatever reason; she never met the boy personally and even if she did, would not give him a second thought. But, he was well known for something. Average Joes do not give out autographs very often.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"Ash Ketchum." Didn't Isabelle already say his name? This girl doesn't pay attention to anything.

Jane rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I got that. But who are you? I feel like I recognize your name. Are you famous or something?"

This was new. It had been a while since he had to fully introduce himself to someone.

"I'm a gym leader," he said, noting her expression went slack. "Ash Ketchum, Pokemon Champion and undefeated leader of the Pallet Town Gym. Do you live under a rock?"

"I don't watch much T.V." she snapped back. Her expression was bitter and Ash could not guess why. He was only teasing. "So, not only are you a trainer, but you're a gym leader, too. Figures. I remember where I heard about you now. A couple of people mentioned you at the restaurant where I used to work. It's hard to tell if your reputation is good or bad "

"I'm the bad boy of Kanto, don't you know?" Ash replied using his best sarcastic Kisaragi impression. Jane snorted. Her attitude was still sour.

"Anyway, you being famous is going to make this harder. We're going to have to get you sunglasses."

"Make what harder?"

"Getting away from Team Rocket." She fingered the rim of her empty bowl of soup, forlorn. Ash felt the old annoyance begin to creep back in. He was so tired of being kept in the dark.

"You still haven't told me why I should be hiding from Team Rocket. If you have problems with them, don't involve me in it."

Jane scowled. "You're already involved." She tapped her forehead in the spot Ash was hiding a horn. He mirrored her scowl.

"Then tell me why. What happened to me? Take two minutes to tell me. Just two, and we can get on with our lives. Can you spare two minutes?"

Jane felt uncomfortable with his tone. She was much too suddenly aware of how childish she was being. Resentment grew in her heart towards Ash, and the fact that she knew it was her own fault made it that much worse. This was not going the way she planned, at all; they were just growing frustrated with each other. She had forgotten that, not long ago, she was in the exact same position, _without _a guide. Now she had a chance to be this boy's guide and she was blowing it on a bad attitude.

Well, she was not going to be shown up by this kid. From deeper than she ever reached into herself, she pulled humility from very limited reserves, just for him.

"Alright. What do you wanna know?"'

Ash could not deny he was surprised that she relented so quickly. He had a counter argument ready for at least five more minutes. So, he was slow in saying, "Everything."

"Everything. Right. Thanks, kid." She sighed and drummed on the table with her fingertips, looking for a place to start. Everything. Everything starts at the beginning, then, huh? She sighed again. Her voice dropped to just above a whisper.

"Ok, here goes. I... no. The thing is... Damn it, ok the beginning.

"I don't know when the first of us started showing up. It was sometime between one and two months after Besero was killed. Team Rocket picked up this guy-" suddenly she stopped. Did he even know the origin? "Do you know who Besero is? I mean, we hear the story back in Unova, but do you _know _Besero?"

Ash was annoyed that she stopped after three sentences, but answered her.

"Yes I know the myth." She continued to stare at him so he continued. "The myth. The one where Besero is supposed to be the Kanto ending threat that unites all of the pokemon to destroy him before he can spread his toxic cloud over the region and create a new race of poison-type pokemon. Yes, I know the myth. They teach it to us in pre-school along with the stories of other Kanto legendaries." He mockingly added, "Moltres, Articuno, Zapdos." Jane shook her head.

"Don't call him a myth. He's real. But that story is fake. Besero is completely peaceful. He's the Kanto region guardian. Somehow, I know this. We all do. Don't you?"

"That's not part of the ancient slab. Where did you hear that?" Jane was almost saddened to hear this. She nodded slowly.

"I thought so... You're not in touch with the legend for some reason. I don't get that... I don't know, maybe you'll mature into it. You only changed today, after all. But that slab those archeologists found is wrong. The humans that wrote it were scared of his power. Somehow, I know that too. In my heart. You're the only one I met that doesn't feel it." Ash did not reply to this. No, he did not feel whatever she was talking about. Nothing inside of him changed, only the outside. And, honestly, that was very hard to believe. It was a wrong way to start off if she was trying to sound credible.

Jane did not believe so. She actually thought his silence was something profound. She studied him for a long time. Partly because she was absolutely perplexed over his ignorance, and partly because she did not know how to segue from that point to the next.

"We'll talk more about that later, I guess. Anyway, um, after he was killed- Oh, you probably don't know about that either." Ash said he did not. "Ok, the _very_ beginning. Team Rocket was hunting down Besero. I can't tell you why, his legend is _buried _in legends. It seems ridiculous without knowing what I know now. Anyway, they find him. They actually track him down and get a shot on him. He got away, but one of their engineers used the DNA from the blood they collected to build this radar system that could read his power, or aura, or energy, whatever you want to call it, and they set off again. So, after searching for about six months, they lock onto him and try to capture him. But they end up killing him. You can imagine how Giovanni felt about that little development, huh?"

Ash had to stop her. "Giovanni? If it was that long ago, why did I just change today? After four years?" Jane looked concerned until realization softened her eyes.

"Oh, man, you think Giovanni died, don't you? I forgot..."

"Think? He died one year after I beat him and he resigned from Team Rocket. He had a heart attack."

"That's what you _think _happened. That's what everybody thinks happened. 'Oh, big bad Giovanni is gone, Team Rocket is turning a new leaf. Let them take over the country!' Those bastards fooled everybody. Once they got their hands into the Pokemon Centers, the research facilities, and the police, it was too late to shut them down. Everyone admired them for building up industries we couldn't live without. A group that began as poachers, and we admired them – _still _admire them. Shit..." She trailed off shaking her head. The weight of what she had just told him sunk into Ash.

"Back up. Giovanni isn't dead?"

"Weren't you listening?Geez, no! He's not dead. He took himself out so that Team Rocket could "remake" themselves. All for show. He's still alive and definitely still in charge. He. Faked. His. Death. Do you understand now?"

"How?"

"Who cares how? He's alive and behind it all! Can I move on now? Geez... Now I don't remember where I was. Oh. So, Giovanni- the guy that _isn't _dead- he's pissing his pants now that Besero's gone. That should have been the end of it, but I overheard one of the Rockets saying how lucky they were to be running the radar for Besero's power at just the right time to see a little blip near the Seafoam Islands. They were testing it or something or maybe they hadn't given up, whatever. Point is, after they destroyed him, he shows up. So, they follow the blip and it's not Besero, it's not even a pokemon. It's a man. And this guy has a tail and he's got purple fur in different places and he's fast. Way faster than a human should be. It takes them hours to run him down even on motorcycles. They said it was like he was using quick attack: basic skill, nothing special for a pokemon, but he's freaking human. Whatever he is, he didn't get that way from pokebriding.

"They don't know what to think. They got a man that reads like Besero and looks like a mix between a human and a Ratatta. It must have gotten to where they kept the radar on during their sweeps, because a week later, they see another blip. This time it's a girl. She's different. She has hard skin that's brown in spots like she's turning into a statue. And she's strong. She pulled up a tree and tried to drop it on them. So, here's where it gets interesting."

Jane leaned forward, fully aware of the dramatic pause she was creating. She was just as lost in her story as Ash was- even though part of him was not believing a thing. He was now aware that he had not been blinking and suddenly had to rub his eyes to wipe away the tears trying to soothe the dryness. Pikachu had moved onto his side at some point during the story; he was enraptured, as well. Unbeknownst to them both, they also leaned forward when she did. She continued in the same low whisper.

"When they put the girl in the area they were holding the guy, they run the radar over them again, for kicks. The aura _grew_. Not 'one plus one equals two,' it grew _eight times _the size it would be if they were alone. Doesn't stop there. Just two days later, they get another girl- she's got a horn, like yours except light blue and she gnawed through three of the nets they threw at her. Well, when they put her in with the other two, the aura grows _fifty_ times stronger. Each one builds it up.

"You understand what's happening don't you? It took them forever to figure it out, even when it was right in front of them. Besero's power was possessing humans, _slowly_. They learned that part when one of the member's relatives suddenly changed five weeks after they caught the first one. That's why you didn't change until today. Don't ask me to explain it, we don't know why everyone didn't change at once and we don't know how fast it's going either. The oldest I've seen is four months. Fun, huh? We discover one thing and it raises fifty more questions. One of the only things we know for sure, is that we have to come together. Why else would the power grow if we weren't meant to find each other? That's how Team Rocket's capturing us is accidentally helping. But, I would rather never fulfill my destiny than go back to that place."

Ash was afraid the story ended there. Jane stopped to rub her eyes a bit and cursed under her breath. They all sat in heavy silence until she was ready to go on again.

They would have to wait a while longer, Isabelle burst through the kitchen, making them jump and causing Ash to tip his empty mug over. She glided her way to the table with a large tray carrying plates and pots balanced dangerously on her palm.

"It's ready! Sorry it took so long, cuddle-bunnies, Martin is asleep at the wheel. You want a refill, hun?"

Without waiting for Ash to respond, she poured more of the coffee into his cup, and set his plate down before him all with one arm. She snatched up his napkin and stuffed it into his t-shirt collar, still one-handed. After Ash was taken care of, she dropped Jane's plate in front of her and poured her more orange juice. She did not touch her napkin.

"Taste it!" she commanded solely to Ash, "It'll be your new favorite!"

She gazed at Ash with sparkling blue eyes and a glow on her cheeks. He stuck his fork in and quickly took a bite before he saw exactly what it was. It turned out to be a wonderfully prepared baked salmon coated with breading. It had a spicy, sweet taste to it that Ash could not place, but he was not concerned with the food at all. He wanted Isabelle gone.

"It's great!" he over-cheerfully exclaimed. His large smile was hidden but he pushed it anyway, anything to make her satisfied enough to leave. Jane picked up on his act and shoved a forkful in her mouth as well.

"Yes, this is really good," she echoed still chewing a bit of it. Isabelle did not look at her.

"You really shouldn't talk with your mouth full dear, it's rude," she said still grinning broadly at Ash. "You really like it? I was worried Dijon Salmon would be a little too strange for you, but I was wrong! You see, the way to get it just right is to over do it on the pecans and the butter of course. Double up on the butter! That's our motto!" Her booming laughter rang out.

Luckily for the party, Ash did not have to formulate a plan to get rid of her. A loud clattering of pots and pans and broken glass exploded from inside of the kitchen. A male voice not used to yelling shouted in fear and more clattering was heard.

"Isabelle get in here! Bring the fire extinguisher! AH!"

The large woman shook her head towards the kitchen door. Her husband could be heard running back and forth through the kitchen and she was merely disappointed at not being able to chat with Ash for longer. She turned around

"That man... Sorry, darlings, I'm going to have to take care of this. You enjoy your meals now. Martin! What did you do?" She stomped towards the kitchen and the yelling and banging commenced. Ash quickly turned back to Jane and waited for her to start again.

Jane stared at her plate. She knew she should have been attacking it, but she could not find the enthusiasm. She pushed the sauteed spinach around her plate, disappointed.

"I'm not hungry anymore."

Pikachu walked across the table and tugged on the black sleeve of the thin, off the shoulders sweater she wore underneath her dress. He held out a piece of his pokemon food once he had her attention. Maybe she would eat his pokemon food if she did not want to eat her own.

"Pika." _'Here.' _A smile crinkled his tiny black nose. Jane smiled with him. She patted his head and took the piece from him. It tasted like a mixture of too many flavors to her, but she swallowed it down without batting an eye, for Pikachu. Satisfied, he went back to his spot and the rest of his food.

"Your Pikachu is nice," she said, "Too bad he has to fight for a living." Ash was thrown off his bearings.

"What? I don't make Pikachu do anything he doesn't want to."

"Yeah right, like all pokemon want to fight all the time." Ash was too confused to respond to that. He swam in his own jumbling thoughts as Jane finally found her appetite again. Her spirits were lifted high enough for her to want to finish her story as well. She shoved some of the salmon in her mouth and almost started.

"Right, so where was I?"

Ash surfaced from inside his mind abruptly. He was so eager to hear the rest that, if asked to recall her comment from before, he would not be able to. But, he could remember where she stopped perfectly.

"You would hide from destiny to do... something."

Well, almost perfectly. Jane knew what he meant, anyway.

"Yeah..."She became quiet again, but not as distraught as before. She stirred her greens while she spoke. "We call it the 'pen.' Team Rocket calls it 'The Ghost Ship'."

"It's a ship?"

"No, it's a plane. Yes, it's a ship." She rolled her eyes. "It's a psychically camouflaged airline carrier, that doesn't show up on any radar. It's so hard to find, they lose contact with their recon planes all the time. There's no way any military could find it if they don't know exactly where it is; perfect for keeping a bunch of mutants hidden.

"But, they didn't just hold us. Sure, we were priceless, but apparently we weren't indispensable. They didn't want the human husk, they wanted the power inside. You can only control a human to a certain extent. The bulk of the experiments were for clues on how to extract the power from us, but they covered everything from strength, to diet, fertility, they even monitored our brainwaves as we slept, and our dreams using a group of Munna. Interesting fact: all of our dreams are about purple smoke. Don't ask me why.

"By the time I got out, they hadn't made any progress towards getting it out of us, but they had killed two trying. They're probably getting desperate now; especially after six of us escaped."

"How?" Ash's mouth blurted it before his brain could think it. "What happened to the other five?"

"A few of the more "righteous" members started to think that maybe capturing and killing us wasn't exactly humane, so they sabotaged the planes and unlocked my cell block. They tried to open them all, but the response team was too quick for them. Out of the eight on my block, only six of us were able to jump ship on a speedboat. Five boats followed us for the first few minutes but we knocked them down to two. When we hit land, we only had to outrun four of them.

"We wanted to stay together, that was the plan, but eventually they got us into smaller and smaller groups. It was me and my cellmate, and the one after us decided to go after her instead of me, moron. I hope he was thrown overboard. I don't know what happened to the rest of them. I kept running until I saw signs that said I was coming up on Vermillion City. I guess I went the wrong way, cuz I got to this Diglett's Cave. At first, I was happy; they can't find me easily in a cave, right? That was the worst mistake I made. I was lost for eight days inside there. I almost starved. But, I got out and saw signs pointing to Pewter City. Somehow, I get there the next day. I find a scooter with the key still in it, and some money I used to buy maps and clothes and_ food_, most importantly. That was three days ago.

"I was in Viridian Forest for a while, when I realized I needed more supplies, mostly gas. My map said Viridian City was closer so I went there instead of Pewter. I passed the downtown area and somehow got all the way to Pallet Town. Then I met you. Now, I'm sitting in a restaurant."

Jane stopped.

Nobody moved right away. The drawn out silence was partially filled with low chatter and clinks of silverware from the few customers, customers that did not hear the story just shared and did not understand how important the silence was.

Ash was so overloaded with questions and so focused on taking apart the story, the scenery around faded away and he could visualize the entire journey. He can see the ocean race between boats, and Diglett Cave's never-ending tunnel, and the path she had to have taken in Viridian to get all the way to Pallet Town. He even visualized the scooter; it was blue.

He was so detached in his brain that his body involuntarily lifted his fork and pushed food into his mouth. It did not sink in until he applied it all to himself. He was part of the story. He was part of every single 'us' and 'we'. _He_ was possessed. _He_ was hunted. _He_ was running through the tunnel and from Team Rocket in a speedboat.

He had to stop visualizing it before he had a panic attack, but he could not. He could not stop seeing himself in the forest looking around for Team Rocket members. He could not stop feeling himself becoming hungrier and hungrier as he walked through Diglett's Cave for eight days. And yet, one thought raced through his mind that he desperately clung to so he would not feel so anxious: '_Prove it_.'

Two words. Prove it. And her story was defeated. His mind rushed to form more calming thoughts. She made it up. Giovanni has to be dead. She's trying to scam you. She hasn't proved anything. He had almost convinced himself to leave right then and there and was already angry that she had the nerve to lie to him.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?"

Jane was angry with just the accusing tone he used, and enraged at being called a liar. _He_ asked her for the explanation. _He_ had ignored her warnings and insisted they come to a restaurant and talk it over. And now he won't accept it? It took every ounce of self control she had not to reach out and strike him across the face. Somehow, her voice remained level.

"Are you fucking kidding me? I just gave you the explanation you begged for and you don't believe me. You think I can make up that entire story on the spot?"

Ash was becoming more and more anxious. This was translated into a much more manageable anger. He would not sit there and let her intimidate him, and lie. He rose from his seat to have the advantage of his height over her. Their spat was becoming louder. Two customers were looking their way.

"You could have worked on it before. I don't know how much time you had."

Jane was yelling now and had the attention of all of the customers. "I didn't make it up! I came to your restaurant, I put up with your doubt, but I am not going to be called a liar over the worst three months of my life! I don't have any reason to try to fool you!"

"When you're as famous as me, you see reasons in everything. You think you're the first person to try to trick me?"

"Shut up! Shut up right now! We're going to Viridian Forest_,_ whether you believe me or not. Grab your Pikachu."

Ash beat her out of the booths. "No, I'm going home. Come on, Pikachu." He pulled out his wallet and slammed down more than enough cash for the meal. He was at the door with Jane and gawking onlookers just behind him.

Outside, the girl chased him down the sidewalk. She shouted at him from a yard away.

"Ash! I've already told you, you can't stay here. They're going to find you." Ash continued to stare straight ahead and speed-walk towards his home. He shouted to the sidewalk and stores in front of him.

"No one's going to find me, because no one is after me."

"Ash, it's true!"

"No!" He spun around and yelled directly at her, pulling down his bandana so he could be louder, "It's not! These things don't happen! You can't grow pokemon parts because a legendary says so! I can't leave my gym because _you_ say so!" Jane stopped inches from him, close enough to whisper. She glared at him, unwavering, knowing what she had to do now.

"You can't grow pokemon parts? Then, explain your horn. Explain your teeth. Explain this."

She pulled off her cap. The first thing Ash saw, was the tangled mess of short, bright cyan hair. The next was a pearl-like bump on her forehead placed in the same area as his horn. The last one was harder to find. They almost blended into her hair. Where her ears should have been, folds of white skin like fins stuck out from the sides of her head. On closer inspection, he could clearly see where they connected to her head and how they functioned as ears and not fins.

He stared in shock and fear as she defiantly stood before him. His anger was quickly leaving him and the panic was setting in. This was not pokebriding, even if he wanted it to be. He knew he was looking at another example of what happened to him, but he did not want to believe it, just as he did not want to believe her story. But, the connections were being made and he was powerless against it.

Jane saw him losing this battle. His eyes widened and his shoulders were beginning to tremble. She was not angry with him anymore. She understood; she had been there and once again she had forgotten what it was like for her in the beginning.

"I know you're scared," she said as gently as possible, "but you know I'm telling the truth." She pulled her beanie back on and placed a strong hand on his shoulder. "This isn't going to be fun. But, you have something I didn't have. You have me. And I have you. We'll help each other." Ash was calming down slowly, she felt it in his shoulder. Surprisingly, this made Jane happier than winning an argument with him did. She smiled and squeezed, "Besides, aren't you an undefeated pokemon champion? You already have more of an advantage than any of the rest of us had."

Pikachu rubbed Ash's head, worriedly. He did not fully understand why he had such a reaction to the story, nor did he understand his refusal of help from this girl. He did know that he wanted Ash to see that he had him, too. But, Ash was still coming down from his anxiety attack and was not responding to him. The pokemon growled and bit down on his trainer's ear, then jumped off his shoulder. Ash cried out and swiped at the area Pikachu left. His hands were coming away with small traces of blood. He was shouting at this more than the pain.

"Agh! What was that for?"

"Pikachu-ka! Pi pika-pi pikachu! Pi!" '_Snap out of it! We are an unstoppable team! Let's do this!'_

Jane was smiling broadly. Trainer or not, the relationship those two had was strong.

"Looks like Pikachu agrees," she tightened her satchel strap to her shoulder and half turned away, "Ready to go to Viridian Forest, now?"

Ash felt better but he was still uneasy, he could not help that. Still, he and Pikachu had seen some pretty hard times. Nothing as bizarre as this, but they were a strong team, always had been, always would be. No matter how crazy this whole thing was, they would have a chance at beating this together and only together.

He stopped Jane from going any further. He pointed behind him.

"It's this way, Jane."

* * *

K, so ya'll know that machine Bill built that turns people into Pokemon? I'm gonna go ahead and say that it doesn't transfer the ability to use pokemon attacks and yes it's still reversible- but not without some complications for some. They never clarified that in the game!(not the one I played anyway!) Also, that's the science behind pokebriding. Which, if you couldn't guess already, is humans giving themselves pokemon parts. I tried to be clear with that without spelling it out you know?

Oh man, you can't begin to understand how nervous this chapter makes me. It's too long, there's a crapload of talking, I put a lot of effort into it! Please tell me how I did! Please!


	3. Chapter 3

I would like to say, thank you ChloboSloka, and XxAdvanced-InfernapexX for reviewing chapter two and inspiring me to make this chapter. This one goes out to you two, big time. Everyone, go read their stories now!

Not saying my other reviewers aren't damn sexy too. I want to make love to all of ya'll don't worry.

Here's Chapter 3!

* * *

"I'm just saying, I can tell us where we are _to the inch_ in five seconds. We don't need to wander around like this."

Jane folded the map she had not stopped pouring over for the last thirty minutes. She slapped Ash on the chest, making a satisfying thwack sound.

"We're not lost! They must have made changes to the forest since this map came out..." she hastily unfolded it and searched, "a month ago... See? That's plenty of time to change the topography!"

Ash sighed heavily and rubbed his temples around the new sunglasses he purchased back in Viridian City. He wanted to go home and grab his old (and frankly, better) ones and some other supplies- such as clothes- but she stubbornly insisted they absolutely could not stay in Pallet Town any longer. She did not so much as let him say goodbye to his mother in person or on the transceiver as someone might be "watching."

If her paranoia was doing them any good, Ash could not tell. So far, nobody was following them, nobody was giving them suspicious looks other than quizzical glances at Ash's distinct disguise, and nobody was recognizing him. He did not want to push their relationship back to endless arguing, but it felt like Jane was determined to get under his skin. When they reached the end of Route One from Pallet Town, they had a grand total of ten sentences spoken between them and five of those were about going back to his house. In Viridian City, Ash was so desperate for release from their taxing silence, he hoped someone would recognize him when he was in the Pokemart picking up supplies.

No one did, and that was better for them (according to Jane.) He was able to pick up a backpack, t-shirts, and other traveling necessities without incident. Then, at around six in the afternoon, they reached the beginning of the forest where Jane plotted a path to her "perfect" camping area and now Ash was almost positive they were lost but he had to tiptoe around that fact if they were going to get anywhere.

"Ok, that's impossible, but even if they did change it, mine is updated every hour. If you would just let me- "

"Ash, if you take that thing out, I'll make you eat it. I swear."

"Why are you always so mean!"

"Hey! You guys trainers? Wanna battle my Metapod?" A redheaded boy in a wife beater and sandals grinned expectantly at the pair. With him was a butterfly net twice as big as any of them. The teens pounced on him.

"NO!" they yelled in unison. Their argument resumed and escalated rapidly.

"Ok..." the boy mumbled while backing away slowly. "Can I at least get your signatures for my petition to increase the Caterpie population?"

"Pikachu, thundershock at his feet!"

Pikachu sighed and sent half hearted electric sparks near the boy's feet, apologizing in his language for each one. The bug catcher ran off, terrified and weeping. Ash and Jane's argument paused as they watched the boy scurry away.

"Good job, Ash. We could've asked him to read the map."

"WHAT!"

In a twenty four yard radius, bird and bug pokemon alike flew from their nesting spots. Crawling bugs skittered for their lives. Trainers looked warily around themselves and hurried to the nearest path. In the middle of it all, a boy with black hair and a disguise stomped the ground and screamed into the trees.

"You're joking! We've been lost for an hour and a half and you're going to treat it like it's _my_ fault! No! We're setting camp right..." Ash marched towards the nearest tree, looked at it and kept going to the one just past it where he trampled the surrounding grass and hurled his backpack down. "Here. This is where camp is." Jane held her hands on her hips; one clutching the map, the other balled into a tight fist.

"No, it's not. It's too close to the trail. Someone could be following us!"

"No!" Ash yelled as he tore open his pack and pulled out a medium sized blanket, "Because if they _were _following us, they would have gotten tired of going around in circles and LEFT. I am making camp right here. I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm setting a blanket down and eating. You can join me if you want." With that, Ash returned to his backpack and pulled out two turkey sandwiches he picked up at the Pokemart. He placed one of them in front of him and the other on the furthest end of the blanket. He tossed Pikachu a package of dried Pokemon food from his pocket.

Jane watched, arms crossed, as Ash tore open the plastic around his sandwich and did not take hers. Ash did not slow down; she could watch him eat his food- and hers too, if she did not take it. By some terribly unfunny luck, the campy ringtone for his transceiver went off on his wrist just as he was stretching his mouth to take the first bite. Jane smiled evilly as he tensed every muscle in body and threw his food down.

"Dammit!"

"Ash, did you just swear?"

He groaned. Why did the transceiver answer itself? Not once did he say "answer"; "dammit" didn't even sound like "answer." He held off on turning the device to face him.

"Mom..." he grumbled.

"You can answer it," Jane stated. Ash glared at her. Of course he could. He did not need her permission. Even if she said no, he would do it, because she was not the boss of him. She said he could not call his mother before but he would have anyway. He was just waiting for the right time. Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly how that happened.

Ash continued winning imaginary arguments in his head until his mother screeched his name from his wrist. He quickly turned the screen around.

"Sorry, mom," he said to the two inch image of her. At his end, he saw an angry brunette, at Delia's end, was a teenage boy that sounded like hers, but looked like a sideshow attraction.

"Ash, what on Earth is going on? Why haven't you called? And what are you wearing? What happened to your head? Are you hurt? Where are you, young man?"

Despite Delia's ramblings, a heavy unease built in Ash's stomach. He had wanted to tell her bye in person but now that he had her in front of him, he knew he never would have been able to. She was already so worried.

"Ok, I have a few things to tell you."

"Are you running away?"

"W-what?"

"No, of course not," Delia said looking somewhere past Ash, thoughtfully, "You'd never make it on your own. I hope you're not eloping..."

Ash put his hand over the camera lens that sent his image to her. He closed his eyes and repeated that he loved his mother and would never want to hurt her. The calming mantra worked even with his mother screaming threats for blocking the camera. He took his hand away and dropped his tone into utter seriousness.

"Mom," the one word quieted her, thankfully, "I have to go away for a while." Delia's face brightened and grew larger as she leaned into her video phone stand.

"You're going on vacation? That's wonderful! Where?"

Ash persevered through her excitement. He was just as serious when he said, "No, this is different. It may even be dangerous." He glanced for a split second at Jane, then decided he did not care what she thought. Slowly, he pulled down his bandana and took off his sunglasses. His mouth no longer fully closed unless he focused so Delia could see the large tusks sticking out above his bottom lip. She blinked then leaned forward into the camera.

"What's wrong with your teeth?"

The small, confused face in the screen grew horrified as Ash peeled the bandages away from his forehead, revealing an even more shocking growth than those in his mouth. He sat in silence watching his mother fumble with her emotions and begin nervously nodding, a habit she adopted worrying over him. She finally snapped out of her trance and shouted into the receiver, making it warble her voice.

"Ash Ketchum! Did you get into that pokebriding mess!"

"What? No!"

"Don't you lie to me!"

"I'm not! This morning, I was at the gym and it just- it just... grew! I don't know how to..."

Jane had been overseeing the exchange, more preoccupied with looking around for anybody listening than hearing the conversation. When Ash suddenly stood up and charged at her with a desperate look in his eyes, her first thought was 'where are they coming from?' She knew it could not be a threat when he took her arm and displayed his wrist in front of her the wrong way.

"_You _can tell her. Tell her what's happening. Like you told me."

"Ash, what's going on?"

"Don't worry Mom, she's going to tell you." Ash saw his mistake and pushed his arm closer to Jane's face while twisting it so that the screen faced her. Jane saw a very worried middle aged brunette woman staring back at her from a tiny screen. Reflexively, she tried to push him away- tried not to be seen. He held his ground.

"Tell her."

Jane frowned. She started to speak but could not find the words until her second try.

"Mrs. Ketchum... it's... better if you don't know exactly what's going on. For your safety and ours." Delia unblinkingly stared into her larger screen. Jane continued, a little more confident. "The best thing for Ash to do, right now, is disappear. I can't assure his safety, but I can tell you that if he didn't leave, they'd find him and you'd never see him again."

"Who'd find him?"

"Team Rocket," Ash and Jane said together. Jane grimaced at him.

Delia shook her head. "Team Rocket isn't dangerous anymore. They can't be after Ash. What would they want from him? This doesn't make any sense."

"Again, it's better if you don't know everything, in case they question you. If they do," her voice suddenly dropped into threatening levels, "You deny _everything._ You don't know _anything _about where we are. It's the only way to protect your son."

It might have been the demanding tone Jane used, or just plain pride, but Delia rose to her full height (an action muted with the way her head was the only part visible to the other end.) An uncharacteristic scowl contorted her otherwise pretty features.

"I've been protecting my Ash longer than you've been alive, missy. Who are you to tell me what I should know? I am entitled to know what's happening to my own son!"

"With all due respect, you're wrong. If they sense you know something, they'll make you disappear. This is like nothing you've ever seen. It goes way beyond supernatural, ma'am. Your son changed, he's being hunted, he has to run. You'll have to be satisfied with that." Jane stepped out of the camera's range and looked gravely at Ash. "Keep it short. And don't tell her anything else." She had to speak loudly over Delia's hysterical commands to return. They stopped as soon as Ash appeared.

"Ash?"

"I know it doesn't make sense, but I trust her, Mom. Don't worry. I'll call you everyday." Even with the pixelation and greatly reduced size, Ash saw an angry and frightened tear run down his mother's left cheek.

"If you don't tell me where you are right now, you're grounded."

The way she desperately tried to sound authoritative sickened Ash. Her shaky threat was as sorrowful as it was unnerving. A thick lump began to form in Ash's throat, and he had to will himself not to say anything, for her safety.

"Remember when I first left for my journey? How strong we were? We can be strong today, too. Ok? If you trusted me then, you can trust me now. I'll be ok. You believe me, right?"

Delia relaxed her shoulders and took a deep, calming breath. "I believe you," she whispered, smiling in spite of herself. "I love you, Ash."

Ash returned her smile. "Love you too. Be careful. If anything happens, go to the board, not the police. _Only_ if something happens. _Be careful_, Mom."

"You sound like me," Delia chuckled, still sniffling. "You be careful, too. And don't let that girl push you around. I don't like her." Ash laughed.

"Ok. Bye. I love you."

"I love you. Bye."

Both hesitated to end the call. They watched each other not hang up for five seconds, then it was Ash who pushed his "end" button. The screen went to a digital clock. He wanted to search her number and call back immediately, but he knew there was never going to be a way to say goodbye that he would be satisfied with. Tomorrow would be just as hard on him, but maybe the day after that might be easier.

While he stood there, staring at the red numbers, Jane grabbed her sandwich and proceeded to sit and eat it on the blanket. "You should probably tell her to leave town," she said after swallowing the first bite of her meal. It was better than she expected, though the tomatoes had gone mushy. "Being a gym leader makes your situation very unique. I don't know how safe she is."

Ash returned to his side of the blanket without looking at Jane. He scooped up the scattered pieces of his sandwich and silently ate. Pikachu climbed into his lap and tried to comfort him. Jane casually tried to get his attention. "Did you hear me? I said-"

"Shut up."

Pikachu gave her a stern look that warned against lashing out at Ash, which she was preparing to do. The pokemon wondered how someone could be so oblivious to a person's pain, but he did not hold it against her as long as she did as told for right now. It looked as if she would. Her face burned red and her eyes were wide with rage but she said nothing and crammed food in her mouth at an alarming rate.

For the next ten minutes nobody said anything on the blanket. Long after the food was gone. Long past comfortable. Ash and Pikachu were stoic, hardly affected, but Jane fidgeted restlessly as she struggled with an emotion she was not used to feeling anymore. Boredom. Plain boredom. Not the restless need to keep moving for her own protection, or the paranoia that accompanied that feeling, just simple boredom. It reminded her of her past life. The life where she pursued many different hobbies and outings with friends, never staying still for more than thirty minutes. Looking back on those days was poison, she knew it, but she smiled and let herself recall her friends and families faces just this once.

Ash secretly studied the play of emotions. Fidgety annoyance, thoughtfulness, happiness and bitterness. Whatever she was thinking about was complex and in no way was he interested in it. Not yet. She was still the person separating him from his life. He _did _wonder why they were not moving; that was extremely unlike her.

"Are we going to start moving soon?"

Jane turned back to him, losing her far away look in favor of a skeptical one. "You're back? I was wondering how long you would stay in that funk." She looked at the sky and their surroundings. The forest was quieting down for the night, the sounds of happy day pokemon traded for their quieter nighttime counterparts. And the endless cacophony of crickets. In non-forest areas the day still reigned sovereign over the night, but in the forest the night had clearly won. A gentle violet dusk softened the harsh green and trainers took this as a sign to get to a shelter and continue their travels in the morning. They would not go any further tonight, either. Ash should enjoy that, and Pikachu more. The poor thing was nodding off in Ash's lap.

"No," she started, lifting herself into a long stretch, "We might as well stop for the night. You bought a sleeping bag?"

"Yeah. Wait, didn't you say this spot was too close to the trail?"

Jane snickered as she dug into her satchel. "Did I? I was probably trying to win an argument. Oh don't give me that look, like you never tried to win at all costs. You're a gym leader." Ash pouted but her easy nature was contagious now that he could put this day behind him and sleep. How amazing it was that he changed just hours ago. It felt like a week had gone by since this morning. His body believed that more than anything. Maybe he would sleep on this blanket, just lay back and close his eyes, under the stars, next to Misty and Brock and a smoldering fire that cooked some of Brock's signature stew.

"Hey."

Ash jerked his body, startled awake. Jane smirked above him.

"You fell asleep without getting your sleeping bag out. Here." She dropped the folded bag next to him. The sound woke Pikachu who was on Ash's other side, curled into his armpit. He jolted awake just as Ash did, kicking Ash in the ribs in surprise. The pokemon sleepily apologized to him while being admonished. In the background, Jane settled into the worn hammock she had set up before noticing Ash's uncomfortable sleeping arrangement. She kick-started a slow swing with her bare foot and snuggled into her thin, equally worn blanket as she was rocked to sleep.

Ash had a harder time falling asleep on his second try. The cool night was perfect setting for his brain to tirelessly imagine a myriad of different scenarios and it took advantage of this, regardless of how Ash felt. He enviously nudged Pikachu, who was curled at his feet in the bag, but the pokemon was out cold. No worries on his end. _He _did not morph into a freak with a horn. Team Rocket was not out to get _him. _Or Ivysaur. Oh no, Ivysaur had not been out of his ball all day and the rest of the pokemon were back home. He forgot to tell his mother.

"Damn."

He cursed under his breath, pulled Ivysaur's ball out from his belt, and pushed the release button. A thin red beam of light shot out from the button and widened and took on a misshapen form that gradually turned into his reptile pokemon.

A fully materialized Ivysaur surveyed the area quizzically, wondering why they were in the forest and turned to Ash for his answer. He rolled back on his flowering bulb plant, overcome with shock at his trainer's appearance.

"Saur!" _'What's that?'_

Ash did not know what his pokemon was reacting to. "What? What's wrong?" The grass pokemon ran up to him on his four stubby legs and jabbed at his horn excitedly, yelling things Ash could not understand but felt he knew anyway. The boy grabbed the claw poking him.

"Ok, ok, I get it. Yes. It's a horn. A lot's happened since this morning, buddy."

Ivysaur nodded seriously, his quick mind picking up on the severity of the situation just by hearing Ash's tone. Ash knew he understood, but of course did not want him to worry so he put on a smile, though it was weary.

"Hey, it's not that bad. It just looks funny. But that doesn't matter right now. Are you hungry?"

Ivysaur shook his head too many times. He could hear the guilt in Ash's voice.

"Are you tired?"

He shook his head again, that time truthfully.

"Ok... do you want to stand guard?"

Ivysaur enthusiastically nodded. "Saur!" He pounced on Ash and licked his face while the boy laughed and tried not to kick Pikachu. Somehow the electric pokemon slept through this. Jane was not so lucky. She gave up trying to get to sleep and rolled over.

"Who is that?" she asked quietly.

Ivysaur jumped into an aggressive pose. He growled lowly in his throat and stamped at the ground. Ash pushed himself up and rubbed the pokemon's front leg, still smiling and dripping with sweet smelling saliva.

"It's ok, Ivysaur. This is a friend. Sort of... Jane, this is Ivysaur."

Jane nodded her understanding and limply held out her hand, palm down. Ivysaur cautiously approached the hand. He sniffed it for a long ten seconds and snorted. This girl smelled strange, but she did not appear to be a threat. He nudged a finger with his reptilian beak and went back to lie next to Ash. Jane pulled her arm back in.

"I've never seen an Ivysaur before. I hear they're rare."

Ash patted his proud friend's head. "Somewhat. Bulbasaur is a popular starter pokemon here in Kanto, when you can get one. You said you were from Unova, right?"

"I did?"

"You mentioned it. What pokemon did you start out with?"

Jane shook her head. "I'm not a trainer. I don't believe in making pokemon fight for our enjoyment. None of my friends are trainers either. I try to stay away from them." Ash remembered what she said about Pikachu fighting for a living, now.

"I don't make my pokemon fight. I train them. There's a difference. Ask any trainer and they'll tell you our bond with our pokemon goes much deeper than just battling."

"Saur," Ivysaur agreed. Jane shrugged.

"I don't deny you have a strong bond with your pokemon, but if I was a trainer, I wouldn't want to see my friends hurt themselves." Her point made and unwanting of a rebuttal, she turned over in her hammock, back facing Ash. "But, you do what you want. The Pokemon Leagues are where the money's at, after all, huh?"

Both Ash and Ivysaur did not forgive her comment about their chosen profession. Even Ivysaur knew that hardly any _good _trainer was in the league for the money. To insinuate that was to insult every hardworking trainer and the close friendship they built with their pokemon. Ash took it as a personal insult to his title. He lifted himself into a sitting position.

"You don't know anything about training pokemon, so don't make assumptions like you do. We prove ourselves and our pokemon's worth in the leagues, and that's way more important than any amount of money." Jane waved her arm behind her in dismissal.

"Alright, you win. I don't feel like arguing right now."

"Yeah right! All you ever do is argue!" Ash realized he was the one provoking a fight, now, but he cared little about that at the moment. He wanted to win this one. "You couldn't stop if you tried."

"I'm _trying _right now." Jane was sounded a bit more irritated. Ash liked it. "If you don't shut up, I'll give you something to argue about."

"Do it, then!"

Ash and Jane both stood up at the same time. They angrily stared each other down, while Ivysaur warily watched from beside Ash. He jumped backwards as the two charged and locked their arms on each other's shoulders, but did not try to attack Jane. He continued to cautiously survey them as they wrestled for dominance. Ash had size and strength over Jane, but she was obviously much more experienced than him. She weaved out of every hold he put her in and soon wrestled him into a choke hold. She grinned triumphantly and quickly stuck her finger in her mouth, sloshing it around for good measure. When it was good and dripping, she drove into Ash's ear.

"Wet willy!"

Ash cried out in disgust and surprise. Jane struggled to keep them both up as Ash frantically tried to squirm out of her grip. Ivysaur scurried out of the way before the two teens could fall on him, but now that Ash did not have the fear of crushing his pokemon keeping him standing, Jane was able to use her body weight and falling momentum to knock Ash down and continue to ravage his ear with her finger. She laughed like a cartoon villain while batting away his arms with the hand not in use. He managed to get his arms under her and lift her up but nothing he did was enough to remove the slobber covered finger from his ear.

"Say uncle!" Jane yelled and wiggled her finger to gross Ash out more. It worked, if Ash's high-pitched shrieks were anything to go by. "Say it! Say "Maly is great!" Do it!"

"What the hell is wrong with you! Stop! Ah! That's so gross! Uncle! Uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle! Get off!" Jane furiously wiggled her finger one last time and finally pulled it out.

"I'll accept that," she said between laughs. She smiled and rolled onto the grass next to him. Pikachu angrily scurried out of the bottom of the sleeping bag he had been trapped in while Ash and Jane jostled around on top of the opening. He sat on top of Ash's chest and chewed him out in Pikachu language. Ivysaur sat back, amused with the whole scene. Seeing Pikachu disheveled and angry, Ash smiled, too. He no longer cared that he lost his first fight to Jane. He apologized and told him to return to his spot and that he would not kick him again.

Everything quieted down. The forest creatures went back to their business of ignoring the campers, Pikachu went back to sleep, Ivysaur pretended to sleep in order to keep better watch, and the teens laid next to each other, unsure of what to do now that they could no longer argue. Then, Ash turned his head to "Jane."

"Is that your real name? Maly?"

The girl known as Jane and Maly did not try to cover her mistake as she might have done less than a day ago. Instead, she sighed and told the whole truth.

"Yeah. I also went by Peter for a while. But Maly's my real name. Magdalena Diane Chalton. Don't call me Maggie, I hate that. Don't call me Maly, either. It's Jane for now. Ok?" Ash nodded. He turned back to the stars. They both watched the leaves sway and block different parts of the sky for a few minutes until Ash had enough of the sounds of loud thinking.

"I haven't felt like a pokemon master in a long time."

He almost regretted letting her know that, but part of him was glad to let it out. That did not keep him from wanting to save a little face, though.

"I'm only telling you this because I don't know you." It did not make a lot of sense, but he was glad he said it anyway. Jane nodded as much as the hard ground let her while searching for a shooting star.

"I know what you mean. It's like when I still felt fourteen even though it was my sixteenth birthday. I _still_ feel fourteen, actually."

Ash laughed suddenly. "No, it's nothing like that, but I understand." Jane stared at him with an eyebrow raised while he laughed about something she did not get. He continued to laugh into his next question. "How old are you? I thought you'd be younger than me."

"I'm nineteen. You?"

"Sixteen."

"Really? I could've sworn you were like, fourteen or something. Huh. So we're both bad judges of age."

"Why did you think I was fourteen? You think I'm immature?"

"Hey, you thought I was young, too. I guess we didn't think much of each other, huh?" Ash liked her reasoning better than his actual reason of her being much shorter than him, so he let her know he agreed with her and left it at that. He nonchalantly scratched the skin around his horn and made a mental note to wrap something around his head before they left camp in the morning.

"Why do I have a horn?"

"Hmm?"

"You don't have a horn. And your teeth are normal. Why do_ I _have a horn?"

Jane chuckled. "You think it isn't fair? Fins for ears are a little easier to hide, but I had a lot of piercings in my old ones. I kinda miss them. And you don't know terror until your ears fall off for no reason." Ash failed to hold in his laugh but he shook it off and repeated his question seriously.

"Why are we different?"

Jane exaggerated a shrug. "I don't really know. I think it has something to do with Besero being Kanto based. Maybe people are turning into other regions' pokemon, but I've only seen Kanto pokemon. And they've never been repeated... Huh. I just noticed that. I also haven't seen a legendary. And they've all been first evolutions. Unless... No, she said she was a Geodude. I mean, we all know which pokemon we are, but it's not always easy to tell."

"We're all different Kanto pokemon?"

She turned to face him. "I thought that was obvious." Ash fixed her with a glare that said 'Don't start.' She shrugged and let it be. Next time, she would have to take Ash's slow reasoning into consideration. "Yes, we're all different. So far. Who knows, there might be _another_ Seel and Dratini laying around in a forest like nothing's after them."

"Which one am I?"

Jane slapped a hand to her forehead. "You're a Seel. That's why I said there's another Seel and Dratini walking around... get it? I mean- ah, never mind."

A Seel. Ash the Seel. What a strange feeling. Like the dreams he used to have about flying on a Fearow when he was five.

"Which one are you?"

"Seriously, Ash? Geez... ok, no I'm sorry. I'm a Dratini, dude. Holy crap..."

A Dratini. Oh. Now, her comment about the _other _Seel and Dratini made more sense. But he was a Seel!

Ash's mind worked with such a rare efficiency that he was a little disappointed that all his mouth could say was, "I'm a Seel." Of course. Of course he was. The horn, the tusks, the story. A Rattata, a rock pokemon, none of the people in Jane's story had the same mutations. They were all different pokemon with different abilities. The super strength, the speed, the gnawing power; they were not only changing physically, but they were gaining the pokemon's attacks and strengths and, in all likelihood, their weaknesses, too.

And he had Seel. Water pokemon, water gun, bubble, aqua tail (he didn't have a tail, did that one count?), weakness to electricity and grass types, advantage over fire. Could he do all of this? What was it like to create a water gun? When could he test it? He had a strange urge to ask Jane for permission. Rather than fight it, he followed that urge.

"Can I use an attack?"

An excited fire lit inside of Jane that took over her tired body. She sat up and looked down at Ash with a spark in her eyes. "I don't know. Can you?"

Ash did not need any further invitation. He pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and was standing three feet away from it before he could properly balance.

His heart threatened to pound out of his chest, but in his exhilaration, he could barely feel it. Where would the water come from? How does he bring it out? He tried focusing on his tummy and his throat, just anywhere inside. Wait. That pressure in his stomach. Was that it? Yes, it was building. He was doing it. Here it comes. Ash set his legs apart and pointed his mouth upwards, preparing to let the burst of water out. His throat relaxed, the pressure crept to the surface...

and he burped.

Jane and Ivysaur fell over laughing. The two became very dirty as they rolled into the less grassy areas, howling without abandon.

Ash burned red hot from his neck to his forehead. He brought his legs in slowly and dropped his gaze, frowning at his company as they hooted even louder.

"You were so serious!" Jane gasped. She rolled onto her back to inhale deeply and the not too heavy Ivysaur rolled onto her stomach. The two held each other as they continued to point and laugh at Ash, who was becoming angrier (which only made them laugh more.)

"That was my first try!" he yelled, trying to pass off embarrassment as indignation, and failing. "Let's see you do better!" Before she could respond to the challenge, Jane had to regain control of herself. She looked up at him from her spot on the ground, smiling and trying not to fall into a fit of giggles. The same spark was still present in her eyes.

"Really? You want to see?"

He had given her a reason to show off; Ash caught this too late. Still, despite his annoyance at being shown up, he really did want to see an attack. Even if he could not do one himself, this would change his life. He nodded curtly, unable to look at her smug grin.

"Alright," she announced, rising and dusting her dress off, "Don't get too close."

Ivysaur had joined Ash at his area a yard and a half away from Jane where they quietly obeyed. The forest seemed to become just as interested in her as they were, or they were so focused, the surrounding sounds were fully tuned out. Especially when she curled into a bracing stance, similar to what Ash had used during his attempt except her arms were pointed forward, palms out. The very air seemed to stop for her.

Then, the air_ did _stop for her. Ash felt a change in the pressure around them, like the energy of the wind was draining from around them and gathering in the area at her hands. He instinctively knew that was where the attack was going to come from. From somewhere far away, Ivysaur stilled every muscle and Ash followed suit. They held their breaths.

Though they had been watching the entire time, neither could say exactly how the whirlwind came to be. One second it was not there, the next second they could see the twisting wind stir debris from between her hands. It stayed in that spot, picking up leaves, and tiny rocks, but did not grow any bigger than a foot tall and less than a foot wide. Ash noted that the center of the cyclone raged powerfully in its area and yet his hair was barely being tousled. He had a feeling that if he stood in the highly concentrated center, it would be a different story.

He was lost in it the entire time, from its explosive start, to its gradual end. It shrank until it could no longer hold the tiny rocks and continued to hurl leaves until it shrank to half of its size when it suddenly disappeared and left the foliage to slowly drift down.

Jane kicked the leaves off of her feet and slung her arm across her chest in a stretch. "Whew! I can't usually control it like that. It always shoots off and makes a huge mess." She turned around expecting to hear praise and see pure adoration. What she saw was a dumbfounded Ash and an equally expressionless Ivysaur.

"Why was it so small?" he asked. "That move, twister, is bigger than that." Jane tilted her head, interested.

"That's what it's called? Twister? Huh. Wait, what do you mean _small_? You can't do it at all! Do you know how much energy that takes?"

"No. I don't," he replied.

So, Jane was an ultra rare dragon type pokemon capable of using dragon type attacks and Ash was Seel, a not so common water type, unable to so much as produce enough water to gargle with. Mustn't let it get to you, Ash. Just say something neutral.

"That's neat."

That did not sound neutral at all. Cover yourself. "I'm going to sleep now. I'm pretty tired." Could he sound more robotic? He decided to stop making it worse with his words and made it worse with his stiff run for his sleeping bag instead. Ivysaur shook his head and stood guard next to him as he turned in his bag and forced himself to sleep.

Jane went back to her hammock smiling to herself. He was totally jealous.

Xxxxx

Ash woke up in the middle of the night feeling that his name had just been called.

It had to have been a dream. Jane was asleep and snoring loudly and Pikachu was still warming his feet. Next to him, Ivysaur had drifted off as well after a boring watch as guard. Did nobody else hear it?

His transceiver told him it was three thirteen in the morning and that was reason enough to ignore whatever it was and try to go back to sleep.

There it was again. That was not a voice. Nothing was calling him, but he still felt the alert feeling. And that alert was coming from inside the woods. What was that? It was so faint. He curled further into the bag, pretending not to notice it, but it would not go away. It was like a beacon. It would show up for just a second after being gone for so long that Ash would forget about it and would be spooked all over again when it returned.

He scolded himself for being so easily frightened. Even ten year old Ash would run out and greet whatever it was, threat or no threat- preferably no threat. Sixteen year old Ash had better not let something so small scare him. He was going to wake up Pikachu and check it out. No, wait, he _wasn't_ going to wake Pikachu because he can do it himself. They'll see. Ash Ketchum is not scared.

A flame of contempt burned within him as he bravely squirmed out of his sleeping bag and limped (limped because he stepped on a rock with his socked foot) to the area he believed the call to be coming from.

The forest was unforgiving to his senses. It was dark and cold and the forest pokemon and regular bugs were unhappy with his intrusion, screeching at him or loudly skittering away so that Ash felt like they would attack. The farther he walked away from the camp site, the less he felt like looking for the mysterious beacon. Not because he was scared, no, never because he was scared. But he was not finding anything and already he was five yards away and stopped hearing it. It had to be gone now, so he started to head back to the campsite at a faster pace than when he left it.

Something was coming from that way. Something real, not a phantom beacon. Ash did not think "Jane" when he heard the rapid snapping of twigs approaching, no, it was the awful thing that he had been searching for finally showing itself now that Ash had let his guard down. He did not think that it was coming from the direction of the camp; his only thought was _run the other way._

His ankle twisted and jammed on him as he twirled around in the grass, but that was hardly a deterrent. He powered through the pain and limp with the wild abandon of prey escaping a predator. This predator caught up to him easily. She had only been five yards away to start with. She tackled him down and held a hand over his mouth to muffle the squeal.

"Shut up!" Jane whispered harshly, "They're here."

She led them to a nearby tree, where she instructed Ash to lay as flat as he could while she crouched and listened for any sounds of footsteps.

"You idiot," she hissed from somewhere above him, "Why did you leave?"

"I heard something," he answered, trying not to touch the dirt with his mouth. "Who's here?"

"Who do you think? Shit! They have Lin with them. Shit! Where are your pokemon, Ash?"

"They're still at the campsite."

"Shit! We need to get them, _now._"

A terrified cry came from the area to their right. It was definitely a pokemon cry, and a small one at that, but because it was running towards them, Ash pulled Jane down in front of its path, pointing and yelling "Get it!" At the same time, a tiny Bellsprout ran out of the bush flailing its thin vines and wrapped onto Jane's leg. The little grass pokemon buried its yellow, bell shaped head into her calf, trembling.

Jane pulled the pokemon off of her leg only to have it wrap itself around her arm."I told you to hide in the trees, Pepper!" she scolded while still struggling with its wrap, "Where's Mario?" The Bellsprout shook its oversized head rapidly against Jane's forearm. "You shouldn't have left him. Did you see them? Do you know where they are?"

Pepper unwrapped one spindly "arm" and waved at the direction it came from. After that, it reached for the satchel Ash had not noticed Jane was wearing. She swatted the pokemon's grasp away.

"No, don't get in your pokeball," Jane commanded, "Go back to your hiding spot. Mario will find you. Ok? Go, now!"

It hesitated and cried out in objection, but ultimately made a break for the bushes, screaming its name in terror. Ash lifted himself into a crouching position behind Jane, who was on all fours glaring in the direction the Bellsprout warned "they" were.

"Was that _your _Bellsprout?" he whispered. Jane pushed him face first to the ground and held.

"What are you still doing here? I said get your pokemon! They're still at camp, you mo-"

A metallic click sounded just above Jane's head. A male voice muted behind a mask spoke to a person not in the area.

"Two runners, like the detector said. I have them at gunpoint. Preparing to take into custody."

The long barrel of the rifle the man held pressed against Jane's shoulder blade. A hard push from it caused her to fall over into the dirt. Ash froze in his downed position.

"You heard that, girly? Now, both of you, get up. Slowly. I lost my cuffs, so we're going to take a walk."

Jane pushed herself off of the ground, slowly, as ordered. Ash stayed glued to his spot, eyes tightly shut. He had never heard a gun being cocked before and was unpleasantly surprised that it was enough to make his body lock up. The man would not stand this for long. If only Ash's body would realize that. As he feared, the man trained his gun on him.

"I said get up, boy!"

Ash's body did not so much as flinch. The grunt stomped over and put the end of the barrel to the back of Ash's head.

"Move! Now!"

Jane's speed was only second to her luck.

A quick twist and a blind kick to where she thought the man's hands were knocked the rifle out of his grip. He was so unsuspecting of an attack that he pulled the trigger he no longer had a finger on and did nothing to stop the second kick aimed at his groin. Ash's body finally released its paralytic hold on him the moment he heard the pained shout from the Rocket grunt. He lifted his head in time to see Jane scramble for the gun that landed less than a foot away from the group. For a terrifying second he thought she was going to shoot him, fearing for the grunt's life even after the grunt clearly made his disinterest for Ash's not a minute ago.

Jane never had any intention to shoot. If she knew how to unload the gun or disable it, she would have. But, she did not, so she used the fully loaded and ready to shoot gun's butt end to strike the grunt across the head, knocking him out cold. He fell unnaturally stiff as a consequence of the clunky hazmat-esque suit he wore.

From beside her, Ash shakily stood up, and was nearly knocked out by another blow from the rifle, but Jane was able to recognize his outline in time. And the Rocket behind him. He spotted the gun she held backwards and raised his automatic one to the goggles on his helmet.

This man sounded much older than the unconscious one and more experienced. There would not be much of a chance that he lost his cuffs as well. The man approached the two carefully, experience evident in the way he held the gun, alone. In a gruff voice he commanded, "Drop the gun and get down on the ground!"

Ash found his body was able to take this one's orders as he automatically dropped to his knees, arms raised. Jane reflexively trained the gun on the Rocket grunt (the right way). "Get up, get down, make up your mind, assholes!" The trigger was easier to pull than she thought it would be. She had only meant to tighten her grip, but the gun went off, the bullet missing the man by a wide margin. The recoil from the shot hit Jane painfully in the shoulder and the gun escaped her hands.

The man was not able to return fire. Jane sprinted into the darkness of the trees as soon as she was free of the rifle. The man ran after her, but quickly gave up when he heard how far away she had already gotten. He had the male runner, though, and that was better than nothing. The boy was too scared to move, he should not run away.

Ash really was scared, but he did move; he turned his head to the bushes Jane ran through. He wanted to confirm that, yes, she definitely just left him with a Rocket pointing a gun at his head.

Unbelievable. She really left him. How was he going to get out of this?

Help.

"Ivysaur! Pikachu! I need you!"

"Shut up!" A kick to the ribs with a steel toed boot winded Ash into silence. The man ignored the boy's soundless writhing and fumbled for the electric handcuffs on his waist. He spoke to the other entity the first man had contacted- possibly a boss. "I have the boy, but the girl got away and Jackson's down. You're going to have to release the detector, Charlie, but don't separate. I need you two together." From inside the helmet, a tinny, electronic voice replied.

"**I understand. Should we call for backup?"**

"It'll be over before they get here. And Jackson'll live. Why let anyone else take the credit for a double capture? We can handle it."

"**Good point. Ok, the detector's on the move just- ah! Shit, hang on you little fucker, don't get too far ahead!"**

Right as he regained his breath, the grunt pressed his knee into the small of Ash's back and pulled his arms back to restrain him. Ash panicked as he choked on the dirt he was being forced to inhale, which earned him another shot to the ribs, this time with the man's fist.

"Quit squirming." The grunt growled as he activated the cuffs that tightened around Ash's wrist when the current was flipped on. He began to pull on Ash's arm to lift him up, and that was when Ash heard a familiar pokemon call and electric attack crashing through the trees.

The thundershock hit the grunt dead on. Ash could not see the man shake off the attack, but he heard the click of the gun and prayed it was not pointed at him or Pikachu.

"Charlie, what the hell! Did the detector just try to shock me?"

"**It wasn't the detector,"** the out of breath, speaker voice that was Charlie replied, **"That was a pokemon. Maybe wild, I don't know, handle it! Stupid chick's got me running all over the place!"**

The grunt snarled in exasperation. He had not seen where the attack came from and did not know where to shoot. If the bosses did not frown on shooting teammates, he would have sprayed the whole damn area, but his bonus for the capture would suffer if Charlie or the detector was hit.

"Fuck! Show yourself!"

The response he received was another thundershock that hit with critical aim again. He was pushed back by the force, but otherwise was unaffected. To celebrate this, the grunt fired repeatedly into the charred piece of forest the attack exited. Ash screamed at him to stop and was ignored.

"Shock proof suit!" the grunt shouted through the noise of the gun, smiling wickedly behind the mask, "Try harder!"

The suit was indeed perfectly shock proof, but it was not at all vine whip proof. Ivysaur extended his vines from a hidden position behind a clump of dead foliage and slammed the grunt and the gun into the ground. He saw that the man was still reaching for the weapon, so he hit him again and wrapped his limbs up while the grunt cursed and threatened. From the charred and bullet ridden ridden area, completely unharmed, Pikachu appeared. He ran up to Ash and jumped on his back to fight with the handcuffs.

Ash could have cried with relief over the tears he was already crying from choking. From his pitiful position of face down in the dirt, he let his pokemon know his relief. "I don't think I've ever been happier to see you guys. Pikachu, I don't think anything will happen if you shock it. Ivysaur, can you cut it with razorleaf?"

Pikachu stopped the grass pokemon's attack with one held up paw.

"Pi pika." '_Let me do it._' "Pikachu." _'You might cut him.'_

Ivysaur felt that he should not disobey his trainer's command, but Pikachu did have sound reasoning, and he appeared to be confident, so he held back, uncomfortably. The little yellow pokemon sent a spark through the cuffs that shorted them out and they loosened immediately. Pikachu had been right.

Ash twisted out of the loosened bindings and was able to sit up after what seemed like an eternity of being in the dirt. Pikachu jumped into his lap and rubbed his wrists carefully, staring up at Ash to see if he was hurt.

"Pikachu," Ash whispered, taking his arms away, "Are you ok? Were you shot? Ivysaur?"

Pikachu let him know that both him and Ivysaur were fine, but Ash still insisted on checking his body for holes or scrapes. Pikachu hit him on the back of his hand.

"Pikachu pi pika pi!" '_That's not important right now!' _he pointed a stubby finger at the still raving grunt tied up in Ivysaur's vines, "Pika!" '_That is!_' In response , the grunt wiggled uselessly.

"Don't you point at me! I'll rip your head off, rodent!" Ivysaur tightened the wrap.

Ash looked at the grunt and Pikachu and Ivysaur and the unconscious Jackson. It was so surreal. The biggest threat he ever faced was Pikachu or his other pokemon being stolen. How was he supposed to handle a threat to his life?

The first thing would be to admit that Pikachu was right, the grunt and the situation needed immediate attention. And Ash knew just what kind of attention this guy deserved.

Without warning, Ash jumped up and sprinted the five steps needed to get to the bound grunt. It was too late to pull back on the attack by the time he reached him, so Ash sacrificed safety for power and barreled into him, knee painfully knocking into the full helmet, and went careening off into the tree behind him. What pain he felt, he set aside and rushed the man from behind this time, tackling him-vines and all- into the dirt and kicked at his midsection, until the throbbing in his certainly bruised knee was too much to take.

"Dick!" he panted as he leaned against a tree for support, "You shot at my Pikachu!" Inside the helmet, the grunt laughed. The kicks hurt, but this kid will never know that.

"I'm going to kick your ass so hard when I get out of this. It'll be worth the pay dock."

Ash prepared to charge him again, using the tree as a push start, but the feeling that his name was suddenly being called again locked his muscles. It was close this time, like someone was screaming into his ear without a voice. He turned reflexively. Pikachu and the trees behind him were the only things he spotted, but he knew the elusive monster had shown up and was behind the trees. Then the feeling was gone again. Gone to be replaced by a deeper sense of foreboding when he heard the real voice of Charlie coming closer.

Pikachu and Ivysaur heard it too. They reared back and lowered themselves to the ground, growling. The last thing they expected was a small person to jump out of the bushes.

"What's goin' on here?" the plucky character asked with a quick sweep of the area.

The non-voice screamed in Ash's ears one last time and was silent for the rest of the encounter. This person was not Charlie. It was the monster. And it looked completely harmless.

Even in the dark lighting, the blonde color of the medium length, wild hair stood out as the most noticeable feature on the female. The clashing green and hot pink of the tiny vest she wore as a a shirt and the smaller white shorts was the next. Then Ash saw the red circles on her round cheeks. They looked just like Pikachu's.

Charlie stumbled into the area, gasping loudly for air. It took him a while to see the extra people in and when he did, he hastily raised his gun- a rifle much like Jackson's- up to his shoulder. He shakily alternated his aim between the three strangers.

"D-don't move!"

"Finally, you show up," the older grunt in Ivysaur's binds snapped, "Now let go of me, before I have my buddy blow your Ivysaur's bulb off."

In the back of Ash's mind, he knew he was angry with the old grunt. In his immediate attention, was the mysterious blonde girl. That called feeling was too foreboding to be comfortable around her, but she looked frail and... well, cute. She could not be capable of harming anybody. And those circles on her cheeks were causing him anxiety, as well. Just like Pikachu's.

Charlie's body language read like a cornered animal. Any sudden movements and he would pull the trigger just out of fear. His commander was trapped, and honestly, the detector and all of her kind freaked him out. He just wanted to make the capture and leave. So, he tuned out his senior and asked the detector, "Is this the one?"

The girl cocked her head and looked Ash over with a thin lipped smile that exposed slightly too large front teeth. She nodded calmly.

"Yup. He's one of us. And aren't you a cutie? My name's Lin. What's yours?"

Before then, Ash did not see the thin, yellow objects hidden in her hair where her ears were. After she confirmed she was like him, he saw them for what they were; ears just like Pikachu's. Skinny, furry, long yellow ears with black tips.

"Look! He has a Pikachu!" she shouted excitedly when she spotted him, "Do you like Pikachus? That's so great!" Charlie grabbed her arm, roughly and shook.

"That's enough! Do your job and drop them!"

Lin's attitude took a harsh one eighty degree turn. Her blue eyes widened menacingly and she latched onto Grunt Charlie's arm. She twisted it backwards and he fell to his knees, losing the gun in the process.

"I'm talking to _him_, right now, Charlie," she said softly, while he frantically fumbled for something in his suit, "_Don't bother me!_"

In an explosion of rage, she hurled the grunt three feet away where he expertly rolled back into a kneeling position, still searching inside his suit and eyeing the rifle at Lin's feet. Lin paid no further attention to neither the gun, nor Charlie. Her smile was back without a trace of the volatile anger she displayed just one second ago. The older man screamed at her.

"You made a big mistake, Lin! You're going to pay for that!"

"Shut up Mr. Jeremy," she said to the senior grunt, giggling. To Ash, she said, "You're going to have to come with me now cutie, 'kay? But don't worry, I promise these idiots won't hurt you." She held out a gloved hand. "Come on. Me and you can sit together in the van."

Suddenly, Ash heard a light beeping sound, like the faint ticking of a clock, except electronic. Judging by the slack look on Lin's face, she heard it too. She huffed and put her hands on her shorts, turning to Charlie with an annoyed expression.

"Really, Charlie?"

"Yeah, really." He stiffly held out what looked like a remote the size of a small flashlight. The only real detail Ash could make out was the blue light outlining the two buttons at the top. The aggressive way he held it was close to the way one would hold a sword or a stick of lit dynamite. It had to be a weapon of some sort. "One push arms it, two pushes and your brains paint the forest. You can tell it's armed can't you?"

Lin chuckled softly and shook her head. She pivoted back to Ash and tapped what he thought was a choker on her neck, but when she hit it, it made a metallic sound.

"They like to think this keeps me under control," she explained for him, "It goes boom when they don't hit the bottom button of that doodad he's holding every thirty minutes or when they hit the top button twice. I could kill them and take it, sure, but that would only be fun for a little while."

"You'd need to hit all three remotes with the code at the same time, and you know it!" Charlie yelled, lunging with the remote, threateningly. Lin examined the ends of her hair absent mindedly.

"You're really starting to annoy me, Mr. Charlie."

"Screw you! Drop them, now!"

Lin let out a heavy sigh that turned into a raspberry at the end. She scratched her head and shrugged at Ash with a quiet laugh.

"Sorry, but they call the shots for now. This is gonna hurt."

Pikachu was the first to catch onto the change in the air, but Ash, experienced in dealing with electric attacks, felt it soon after. Instinct took over and he rolled out of the way just as a quick bolt of electricity hopped along the ground and through the spot he just barely escaped. Pikachu cried out a warning at him, and he was able to dive and narrowly avoid the second attack. He responded quickly, before a third attack could be launched.

"Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

A much stronger surge of electricity charged towards the girl, who had yet to make a move to get out of the way. The area she occupied was swallowed by a blinding light and a deafening crack that scorched the trees and grass along a path to Lin. As his eyes recovered from the flash, Ash spotted a hazy brightly colored figure swayed in the middle of the wreckage. It fell to the ground and did not move for the entire time it took for the dancing spots to clear from Ash's vision. Once they did, the figure that was Lin jumped up and spun around in place.

"Wow! That was intense!" she shouted happily, "Your Pikachu is really strong. But, electric attacks don't work on me!"

"Pikachu hit her with a volt tackle!"

"Hang on now."

Lin swiftly kicked the dropped rifle up with the tip of her boot and caught it expertly. She cocked and pointed it at Pikachu before he could begin to charge his attack. He backed up against Ash, ready to defend him if he had to. Lin laughed.

"He looks fast but not beat-a-bullet fast. Now, stay still. I want this to be a clean hit so you don't feel much."

Ash was not sure if she meant a shot with the gun or a jolt of electricity, but, before he could really become worried, another call much fainter than the one he associated with Lin made him look to the right. Lin followed his gaze without moving and smirked. The next second, Jane bounded through the bushes, screeching a battle cry and clubbed Charlie with a large tree branch. He held his arms up uselessly as she attacked him over and over until his helmet was beyond destroyed and he was in too much pain to move.

She focused on Lin next, who had remained suspiciously still throughout this attack. The ease with which she disarmed Lin of the gun with a kick was far too perfect to be anything but compliance from her. Jane recognized this and glared at her when she was at a safe distance between her and Ash.

"Six-two!" Lin greeted with open arms, "How've you been? Enjoying your temporary freedom?"

"Go to hell," Jane snapped back, "You deserve worse for selling us out to these bastards." Lin giggled and twirled her hair.

"It's all in good fun. Besides, I kinda don't want you anymore. In fact, since I'm feeling so nice, if you let me take the boy without a fight, I'll let you go. For now."

"What the hell!" the Rocket, Jeremy, screamed from his lonely place behind them all. "You don't have the authority to make that decision!"

Lin erupted with the same sudden animosity as before.

"SHUT UP!"

The next moment, she was charging towards them and Ash was cut off from calling an attack as Jane tackled him to the ground and braced herself over him. Pikachu sent a jolt Lin's way that she dodged and he ducked as she vaulted over him and Ash and Jane. Ivysaur dropped Jeremy and prepared to whip at her but she ignored him completely and pounced on the elder grunt.

The four non-Rockets froze in confusion as Lin skillfully unlatched Jeremy's helmet and threw it to the side to give him an electrically charged headbutt. Ash noticed that a familiar lightning shaped tail stuck out from the hem of her shorts, but that went out of his head as soon as she poured what had to be a lethal amount of electricity into his suit. Her hate filled raving was barely heard over the screams of her victim.

"You never let me do it my way! Never! You're not gonna stop me this time! He's mine!"

When the screams turned into gasps and gurgles, Ash's hands automatically went to his ears to block out the sound and he shut his eyes to the the spasms, unconsciously burying his face into Jane's shoulder, who was still on top of him. The rest looked on in awe and horror until she finally stopped and dropped him. Calmly, she shook him as if to wake him up from a simple sleep, all while pungent black smoke drifted from the suits opening at the grunts neck.

"I guess he's dead, then," she stated simply, then started her search for the remote she needed to keep her choker from exploding and taunted his body as she fingered through the pouches. "We can call this payback for all those times you hit me with that rifle. Not as powerful without a gun, are you? At least you look good in black." She let out a high-pitched cackle at this.

Jane slowly, but most of all, quietly, pried Ash's hand away from his ear.

"Ash," she whispered, "Tell your pokemon to attack now."

He looked up at her and saw that she was carefully watching Lin. Her stare dropped to him for a moment and she signaled him with her eyes. Ash broke free of his stupor and his years of pokemon training instinct took over. He heard himself calling for a stun spore attack.

Because Ivysaur was closest to Lin, the attack was a sure hit. The purple cloud of spores enveloped Lin's entire body and she slumped over in the middle of trying to escape it. Ash and the rest were so absolutely stunned at how well it worked that they stayed alert in case they discovered she had been faking.

For the first moments of cautious silence, Lin grunted as she struggled to move her paralyzed limbs. Not long after, she gave up and accepted her temporary place atop Jeremy's suit, giggling.

"I'm beginning to like you more and more," she declared, "Hey Six-Two, what's his name?"

"Shut up, Lin," Jane said as she picked herself up. She held an arm out to Ash and helped him up as well. The two teens breathed heavy sighs of relief, feeling a little shaky but grateful that the life threatening situation was over.

"Aw, come on. You guys can't leave without telling me! That's not nice!"

Lin's voice was far away to Ash. His attention was on the body of the older grunt, though he could not bring himself to look at it. He grabbed onto Jane's dress and stared at the ground as he whispered, "Is he dead?" Jane glanced quickly at Lin and the body and thought she could smell the burning skin from within the suit so she looked away. "Yeah," she answered, "He's dead." Lin let out the unsettling cackle again.

"Burnt to a crisp. What can I say? I like my men well done."

"You're really sick," Jane said as she began to leave the area. Ash had unsteadily taken a few steps towards the campsite, but Jane grabbed him and spun him to face the direction she was headed. "I grabbed your bag," she said, patting her satchel, "Let's go before she can move again." He should follow her, but something was keeping him glued to this area. Maybe he did not want to see this journey out anymore. Or maybe he just did not want to walk past Lin and Jeremy.

"But, I just..."

"Let's go, Ash." Jane pushed him ahead of her and the two teens and two pokemon left the charred remains of their experience behind them.

"Ah, you let it slip!" Lin called out, cheerily, "Bye, Ash. I'll see ya soon 'kay?"

Jane pushed him again so that he would not look back. When they were out of ear shot they broke into a run and did not stop until they exited the forest three hours later.

The sun was just coming up at this time. Serene, morning rays of sunshine, and cheery pokemon calls seemed to mock the horror that the group had just left. Ash felt himself resenting the breeze cooling him, though it was the only thing keeping him from throwing up in exhaustion. Nothing should be happy. Not when there was a dead man less than ten miles away from them.

"I'm going to throw up," he said so he would not think about death. Jane fell to the grass, panting.

"Please don't," she pleaded, close to vomiting herself, "That's disgusting."

"Pika." _'Agreed'_

"Saur." '_Seconded._'

As the group laid there, catching their breaths, two just as exhausted pokemon emerged from the forest and one of the two collapsed on Jane's stomach. This one was a Bellsprout, probably the same one from inside the forest, and the other looked like a purple napkin draped over a pokemon with large blue eyes and a horn on top of its head. It did not look as tired as the Bellsprout, and that was probably because it floated two inches off the ground instead of running on it. The way it unblinkingly glared at Ash unnerved him, so he was slower in pulling out his pokedex than he might have been with another pokemon. The pokedex beeped and the electronic male voice explained the pokemon for him.

"**Shupp****et. The puppet pokemon. ****Shuppet grows by feeding on dark emotions, such as vengefulness and envy in the hearts of people. It roams through cities in search of grudges that taint people.**"

He saw on the screen that it was a ghost pokemon. It made him wonder what it was doing out here in the sunlight. The Shuppet finally stopped glowering at him and hovered closer to Jane, who patted its head.

"Thanks for getting Pepper out of there, Mario. Are they following us?"

The Shuppet, Mario, nodded once, solemnly.

"Is Lin still alive?"

Again, the Shuppet nodded.

At the mention of the name, the Bellsprout, Pepper, dove into Jane's bag and scrambled about until a bright red light shone inside for a second and the bag became still. It had returned itself to the pokeball. Jane shook her head and reached in to grab another ball. The Shuppet scowled at her and turned away haughtily.

"Hey!" Jane frowned, "Don't give me that. It's for your protection."

Mario still kept his back turned to her until she defeatedly sighed and returned him to his ball.

"Troublemaker..." she said under her breath and stuffed Mario back into her bag.

"I thought you didn't like trainers," Ash stated next to her. Jane knew exactly where he was getting with this. She grimaced at him and quickly explained.

"It's for my protection. And theirs too. I need them to help me and they can't go off on their own. Whatever, you wouldn't understand. Moving on. Lin's sense has a three mile range, so we need to get going."

The boys collectively groaned. There was a strong possibility that it was going to take more than a murderous psychopath to get them to start running again. Ivysaur returned himself to the pokeball just after Jane's announcement with a little smirk at Ash and Pikachu's envious faces. Ash looked to Pikachu, who gave him a tired shrug.

"What are you worried about?" he said playfully but also jealously, "You ride on my shoulders. Where are we going, Jane? What's the plan?"

Jane thought quietly for a few seconds, then reached into her bag and pulled out six or seven maps that she repeatedly unfolded and folded again and plotted a route in her mind that Ash knew was bound to get them lost. But he had to trust her for now. He did not know the next step yet. After two minutes, Jane shoved all but one map back into her bag, and pointed far away to the north.

"We're gonna have to get out of Kanto. If we go back to Vermillion, we can take the first ferry that gets us out of here, maybe Sinnoh. Although, we might not want to be on the water that long. It could be dangerous... maybe somewhere closer... " She pulled out ten more maps and frantically studied them.

Ash had two problems with this plan. One: Vermillion City was almost in the exact opposite direction of where she was pointing. Two: that was hardly a plan at all. More running? When would they ever stop? Or at least do something useful. But he could work with her. She had more answers than he did, so he swallowed his negative comments and accepted her idea.

"Ok," he started, "When we get out of Kanto, what do we do?"

"I don't know yet, shut up. I'm trying to think..."

Anxiety started to build in Ash's chest. "What do you mean, you don't know yet? What were you doing before you got me?" Jane sent a brief sour look his way, and returned to her map folding and studying.

"I was running, duh. I told you like three million times."

"When do we stop running?"

Jane's focus was broken. She tried to make a show of pretending to still be reading but neither of them were buying it. And Ash was becoming more frustrated with each second unanswered.

"Why did you take me from Pallet Town?" he asked; anxiety turning into hostility bubbled under the surface of his calmness. Jane slowly began to return some of the unneeded maps to her bag, stalling until she could find a way to answer. Actually, she knew a way. It was just a matter of answering him that would not a) scare him, or b) make him angry. Considering what her answer was, that would be a challenge.

"Alright." She gave in. The truth was just easier. "I haven't stopped running because I don't know what else to do. I didn't have a plan. It was luck I was in Pallet Town when you changed."

Ash took a long inhale and held it. After ten seconds, it rushed out of his nose, taking with it denial and patience. An emotion Ash welcomed with open arms set in: anger.

"You idiot! You took me from my home and you didn't even have a plan! Not even so far as past the forest! Did you think at all?"

Jane held her arms out in a defensive manner. "Ok, ok!" she shouted with a strange mixture of comfort and combat, "I didn't have a plan past the forest. But the forest _was_ a plan. It was supposed to be the best way to hide from Team Rocket."

"And we were found anyway! You don't know what the hell you're doing!"

"I do know! I know we have to stay together! I know that if I didn't grab you, _they_ would have. I _saved _you from the facility. I did, I saved you."

Ash stood there quietly, fists still shaking.

He was still so angry with her. He still had so much more ranting to do. But, she had changed. Her posture and tone went on the defensive. She repeated that she had saved him, not for Ash, but for herself. She was reassuring herself. Underneath the aggressive behavior, she was simply running scared, trying to cope with the fear brought on by her situation and maintain a sense of purpose. It was why she took Ash with her. He realized this now. When he appeared, not only was she no longer alone, but now she had someone to protect, as well. He could not be angry with her for trying to keep her sanity by giving herself a mission. He just wished she had thought it out a little more. The only reason he had followed her was because he thought she had a plan or some way to fix him.

No, that was not true. He _hoped _she could fix everything, but he followed her because he was even more lost than she was. She at least knew why his face had changed, something he would not have been able to discover without her help. He could not be angry with her for that, either. In fact, he had to grateful for that one.

Also, Team Rocket probably _would _have captured him. Hell, without Jane, he would not have even known that he had to hide from Team Rocket at all. He probably would have gone to them on his own and be as dead as Jeremy right now.

Jane _did_ save him. She should not have had to reassure herself of that.

Ash dropped his head and sighed. His anger had dissipated, leaving him with too many unspoken argument points, but he had a new kind of respect for Jane, and maybe that would help things later.

"Fine," he mumbled, "What are we going to do then? We need a plan, _now._" He stressed the word "now", accusingly.

Jane had secretly been waiting in fear of what he might say about her choices, but now she breathed easier and loosened her defensive stance. She was back to her confident self. She patted her map against her palm and said, "We're hopping the first ferry out of Kanto. Sneakily of course. We can't afford to be seen around here anymore, even with disguises."

More running. Be calm, Ash; remember that her priority is to not be captured. You can work with this. And she kind of has a point. The other regions would have less Team Rocket members.

"But, I think we need a plan other than running," he thought out loud to himself.

"Like what?" Jane challenged, her leadership suddenly threatened, "You wanna barge into their headquarters, guns blazing? Do you know how to sink a ship? 'Cuz I sure as hell don't."

Ash rolled his eyes. The old, confident Jane was better than the unsure, fearful Jane, but not by much.

"We can't run forever. We don't need to outright attack them, but it would be nice to have some sort of strategy that might get us out of this mess."

Jane quietly agreed with him, but did not say anything. Instead, she silently started walking away from the forest, pondering Ash's words. Ash let her walk, even though she was not headed in the direction of Vermillion City like she had previously planned. It gave him a chance to think.

The ultimate goal was to become a regular(looking) human again. Since there was no way to know where to even begin for that one, they would have to set their sights a little lower. Not being pursued by Team Rocket anymore fell neatly into that category. So, how do they get them to stop? They had already proven themselves to be much more driven these days. And a shock from Pikachu would certainly not mean as much destruction as it used to. They needed help, and information, somewhere to start. They needed someone who knew the most about Team Rocket. An inside man.

...Or _three_ inside men.

Ash stopped Jane with a tug on her bag.

"We have to go to Cerulean City."

* * *

damn that was long... sorry? Not sorry? I prefer long chapters so I'm a little biased.

Hey. Hey you there. Why don't you drop a review my way, huh? How about it?

Seriously, I update much faster with them. I know this has been painfully slow but I have created a deadline that I think I can live with. A chapter at least every two weeks! If not, then I wrap up whatever I'm working on and post it right then and there. Pressure's on!

Oh! and I never said this but thank you for telling me what shipping means haha

Familiar character introductions in the next chapter guys! Stick around for it!


	4. Chapter 4

My shortest chapter!

I made up Jessie's last name because I couldn't find her real one. And I couldn't find (didn't look for) the "popular" one. I gave her the English voice actor's last name. I think I saw James' last name somewhere, but I could be wrong. Sorry! I have little patience for research, but you know, I still try...

oh, and I also couldn't find a lot on Carl so he'll probably end up being pretty OOC. Making up his last name, as well.

* * *

The three days it took to reach Cerulean City was more or less a routine of walking, eating and sleeping, arguing, and more walking. They would travel through the least populated areas, rest when they were tired, eat when they were hungry, and argue at little provocation. By the second day, he was wishing on stars for a new traveling companion.

Speaking of companion, his old traveling partner that resided in Cerulean City did not slip his mind. He wondered if he would see Misty while they passed through, but he always stopped himself before he could really imagine their reunion. Besides, they were not going anywhere near her former gym/current theater at all, so there was little chance they would meet. She would probably just turn right back around if she saw him coming, anyways. Oh, damn, there he goes again. Forget her.

Now, they were in a semi-wilderness just on the outskirts of Cerulean City, Jane constantly staring at Ash's hand-held electronic map(that he begged her to use if she was going to lead), mesmerized by the progression of the digital blue arrow that pinpointed their position, and Ash ultimately deciding where and when they rested due to no longer having the endurance he used to.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked distractedly, for the third time in the last thirty minutes. "Like absolutely positive?" And for the third time, Ash patiently eased her concerns.

"I keep telling you, it's safe. No _actual_ member of Team Rocket will go anywhere near them. It's like the current members are afraid to be seen with them. We have a safe zone of at least a few miles."

"Are you one hundred percent, zombie undead serious, unquestionably confident they're not members anymore?"

Ash, as well as Pikachu- who also had to bear this for the past hour- groaned dramatically. "You said you were going to trust me." Jane looked up from the gadget briefly.

"I do want to trust you, Ash," she said, so seriously that Ash felt a little uncomfortable. "Don't make me regret this."

Ash cleared his throat and stammered a better explanation. "O-ok, look. When they were kicked out, they started protesting against Team Rocket. And before Giovanni died- I mean, you know... they fought and argued in the newspapers and on TV and other stuff... but anyway that's all stopped. They just hate each other now. Trust me. I went to the opening of their first salon and they refused to talk about them anymore."

"...and you're sure of that?"

"I'm sure!"

"Pikachu!" '_He's sure!_'

"Ok! Geez... So, where is this place?" Jane asked, eyes returning to the arrow.

"I don't know, I've never been to their new location," Ash admitted, ignoring the glare Jane shot him for not knowing where they were going(quite hypocritically, in Ash's opinion). "I think it's called "Jessie, James, and Meowth's Pokemon Salon." Or I think they stuck with "JJM" They went through so many names, it could have changed three times by now."

"How are we supposed to find it?" Jane rubbed at her forehead, attempting to better control the simmering anger that was slowly beginning to boil. "It's not like Cerulean is a small city. It'll take forever to comb through the entire place for a dinky salon and dammit Ash, are you listening to me!"

If Jane had been watching Ash and not grumbling behind her hand, she would have seen Ash had gone ahead. He was, in fact, not listening. The boy he approached was using his arms to give him directions to the newly named "Jessie's."

"It's right across the street from that new seafood restaurant," the preteen trainer said, gesturing in the direction Ash and Jane had been walking, "A big, weird looking, pink building. You'll know it when you see it. I'd never take my pokemon to that place, it's way too girly."

"Yeah, no kidding," Ash replied, distracted by repeating the directions mentally, "Well thanks, you saved us a long search." He felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Jane asked softly, burning with rage underneath her cool exterior. Ash noticed the boy had left.

"Why are you whispering? He's gone. "

"I can see that!" She can see that now, she would say if she was honest. "Can you warn me when you're going to run off by yourself and endanger our lives?"

"When did you become my mother?" Ash whispered under his breath and left her to resume the trek. The next hour's walk was filled with nothing but fighting about this comment.

Xxxxx

Ash was extremely grateful when the gaudy, salmon colored building came into view. Both he and Jane had argued themselves hoarse and he desperately craved any other conversation partner, even if it was his old tormentors. The same ones he could see outside of the ugly building.

Former Team Rocket members Jessie Lillis and James Morgan were feuding over the banner underneath the neon lights that spelled "Jessie's" on the front of the building. It became more heated as the group drew closer; the only thing keeping James from a severe beating was the ladder in between him and Jessie. At least, Ash was pretty sure it was Jessie. The magenta hair color was right, but the length was barely past this woman's chin. And, if he remembered Jessie right, her hair was her lifeblood- she would murder anyone who dared harm it.

"It's straight!" the maybe Jessie woman yelled to the definitely James man, "I'll push you off this ladder if you go up again!" She did threaten like Jessie.

James peeked through his ladder barricade and spotted Ash, Jane, and Pikachu coming towards them. He ventured out, ready to greet the potential customers, when still-not-positive-it's-Jessie grappled him into a headlock and tugged on his ear. She was violent like Jessie.

"Jessie, please!" James cried, struggling to breathe through her stranglehold. "We have customers!"

Though unconvinced that this was not a distraction, she followed his gaze and spotted the three walking towards them. Ash had the bandanna around his face and a makeshift wrap of a torn shirt around his forehead, so it took Jessie just a fraction longer to recognize her old nemesis.

"Welcome to Jessie's!" she said, snapping into her sweetest persona as she let James fall to the concrete. "Are we working with this adorable Pikachu? Or do you have other pokemon? Let me tell you about our group discounts..." The three were never able to hear about the discounts; Jessie had almost recognized Ash but until she put him together with Pikachu, she stared at him, squinting. Once she did place him, she jumped backwards, blue eyes widening with surprise and fury.

"It's the twerp!"

Her cropped hair swung in time with her green dangly ball earings as she spun around to pick James up. "Go grab Yamask!" James stammered and stumbled when she pushed him towards the double doors of their building. Ash only became worried when she reached in the pocket of her long white coat(that had a large red "J" on the chest area, reminiscent of a previous uniform they donned) for a pokemon and called Pikachu forward just as she was about to throw it.

"Woobat, go!"

"Stop!"

Startled, Jessie froze and wobbled on one foot, the pokeball unreleased. She glared at James, who had been the one that stopped her and had now put himself between her and Ash's group before anyone could attack.

"Jessie! The twerp is not the enemy anymore! We've gone straight, remember?"

The woman's eyes narrowed but she slowly put the ball back into her pocket. She appeared calmer, but was still far from happy about seeing them. James also did not smile. He nervously darted his attention between the group and tried not to flinch when Jessie moved.

"What are you looking at?" Jessie spat at Ash in particular, "Are you here to stop our evil plans? Have you come to neutralize our nefarious nail clipping crime ring? Or the heinous hair styling hoax? Our corrupt curling conspiracy! What do you want!"

James interjected sheepishly, "She's been reading books with a lot of alliteration, lately..." He was immediately silenced by a clonk on the head with Jessie's fist.

"Shut it," she growled. "I bet you'd like to see us blast off again, wouldn't you, brat?" Ash cringed and took three hesitant steps back. Jessie took three longer steps forward and steadily became louder and more hysterical. "Want us to recite the old motto for you, too? Prepare for trouble, make it double? Come on, James, the twerp came to hear the saying, you don't want to disappoint him, do you! Why don't you just get the hell out of here!"

"They didn't come to hurt us..." James pleaded from beside her. She threw him off when he tried to grip her sleeve.

"Fine!" she screamed, her hysterics peaking, "Then what did you come here for? Why are you bothering us?"

James repeated her questioned, curiously. "Why _are_ you here?" Ash swallowed loudly and did not say anything until Jane and Pikachu pushed him forward. He gave them both a dirty look and mustered up the courage to look Jessie in the eyes and say:

"I need your help."

xxxxx

"Would you like some tea?"

"Uh, no thanks, but if you have some water for Pikachu..."

"Just a moment!"

James bounded out of the waiting room, leaving Jane, Ash, and Pikachu sitting on one of the four red leather couches. He had been the perfect picture of hospitality; seating them, taking their backpack and satchel, all with a genial smile. Jessie scoffed at the other end of the area where the hallway to the restroom and the stairs to the second floor began, intent on being the antithesis to James' warmth. She turned her her back to the three.

"Don't get comfortable, you won't be here long."

"Jessie!" James chided as he returned back from the mini fridge, bottle water in hand. "I'm disappointed in you! That life is over. We've moved on." Pikachu took the water he was handed and chewed and scratched at the cap. He handed it to Ash after a few seconds and the boy twisted it off for him. James took to boiling water for tea on the portable burner in the salon area, despite their refusal. "Although," he started, chuckling softly, "It is a strange feeling, being this close to the one pokemon we hunted for almost our entire career as Rockets. Ah, the memories..." He poured the water into the kettle with an airy expression.

"I remember being mocked by the entire team for not catching one Pikachu," Jessie added from her corner, "I remember owing money. I remember trading our debt in for a forced resignation and a restraining order against us, even though we were the brightest, the most driven-"

"The most stylish," James called over his shoulder while adjusting the heat.

"And the biggest stars of Team Rocket! Those brainless, bloated buffoons!" She expelled her anger on the wall in the form of a Jessie-powerful punch that rocked the entire salon. Everyone else looked up at the creaking ceiling, fearfully. Ash whispered to Jane.

"See? They're not allowed near Team Rocket anymore."

"I can't see why..." Jane whispered back. There was no way these lunatics could have ever been part of the same group that tortured her kind. No doubt, they made it a week in and were spat out.

James came back to the seating area with a tray of four porcelain cups and a purple tea kettle, clicking his tongue at his female counterpart. "You're going to knock off another sign if you're not careful." He placed the tray- that Ash now spotted cookies on- next to a pile of last month's fashion magazines on top of the white coffee table in the center of the four couches. Needless to say, Ash and Pikachu made quick work of the lemony treats. Jane resisted slapping them out of her hands, though she was twenty percent sure they were poisoned. Ash said trust, and she was trying, but these two were clearly unhinged in some way and she had yet to decide if it was harmless or not.

"So, how's the gym?" James said easily, unaware of the accusations being made in Jane's mind, "The news doesn't cover it very much, anymore." He nervously added, "Not that we actively watch for you, no, that would be obsessive and weird."

Ash's chewing slowed. A tight feeling came over his stomach. He swallowed what was in his mouth(though no one would be able to see the food anyways) and quickly answered, "It's fine."

"Good, I'm glad to hear that," James said, relieved that he did not make anyone feel uncomfortable. "You haven't told us who your pretty friend is. I always expected you to end up with that red-head brat- uh...oh... sorry. Old habits die hard..." He took a quick, shaky sip of the too hot tea that was then immediately dropped as soon as the scalding liquid touched his mouth. The teens and Pikachu awkwardly watched as he swiped at the large brown stain on his white coat and rubbed his lips simultaneously.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow!"

Jessie appeared at his side with a bright orange towel, sighing heavily. "You're hopeless, James." She dabbed at the mess more gentle than Ash had thought was possible for her. James quieted and allowed her to remove the coat to get at the red turtle neck sweater he wore underneath. Before Jessie could pull away when she was done, he captured her arms and pulled her into a brief kiss(that felt odd on his burned lips.)

"AHH!"

Everyone jumped and turned to look at Ash who sat there, mouth agape after shouting and pointing at the former grunts.

"What's your problem!" Jane asked first, angry that her heart was pounding so hard because of him. Jessie and James felt similarly. All three and Pikachu stared at Ash as he silently berated himself for the outburst.

"S-sorry... I... I thought you were brother and sister."

"What!" Jessie screeched. She shoved James away as if the claim had been true. "Ugh! That's disgusting! No, we're not related you little perv!"

"They don't look anything alike," Jane pointed out.

"They fight like siblings!" Ash defended loudly.

"I didn't know the twerp thought we were related..." James mused.

"My name is Ash!"

"Sorry. Habit."

"Alright, alright!" Jane shouted, "Can we talk about why we came now?" She directed this more towards Ash, but it was James that answered her.

"Oh. Yes, you needed help?" He and Jessie took seats on the opposite couch. They were close enough to touch and when Jessie realized this, she scooted closer to the armrest. James knew she was still embarrassed, so he let her go. "Help with what?"

"And why are you wearing that stupid disguise?" Jessie mumbled, supporting her head with her fist. "It doesn't even work."

"We want to destroy Team Rocket," Jane said before the conversation could get out of control again. She fixed the pair with a determined look, daring them to protest or try to stop her. As non-threatening as they seemed, it did not change the fact that they willingly joined Team Rocket, meaning their morality was not exceptionally virtuous. 'I don't trust you' she hoped passed along with her challenge. Jessie snorted at her message- both verbal and non-verbal.

"What do you want us to do about that? We're not in the giant robot business anymore, if you can't tell." She waved a hand towards the grooming area of her building(oddly enough, some of the equipment did look like they could be robot parts- colorful parts, but easily in the large mecha category) Ash took over; Jane was being too hostile for him.

"What she meant to say was, we want them to stop chasing us."

"No, now I want to destroy them," Jane repeated, giving Ash the daring look now.

"You do?" he asked. She never shared this with him before. Red leather squeaked as Jane repositioned herself to see Ash better.

"You were right Ash, we need to stop running. Don't you see? They won't give up. They'll keep chasing us even if they fail a thousand times. As long as this is going on, they won't ever stop trying to possess it. It's not as simple as them settling for another power; they want this and everything else."

Ash was quiet and anxious and when he was going to refute her claims, Jessie beat him to it.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said shaking her head,"What's going on with power or what, now?"

Jane squirmed uncomfortably. "It's better if you don't know everything..."

"Don't start that," Ash said, surprised at the speed his voice came back to him. He did not tell the story himself, however. Jane frowned at him and took a deep breath in.

"Ok, it started when they were hunting Besero. I don't know why they went after him-"

"Short version, Jane."

"Just let me tell the stupid story, shit! Ok, Team Rocket was hunting Besero and then they killed him and then his power possessed us and now they want to capture us and we're running from them and we want them to go away. Short version. Happy?" Ash kept quiet for the sake of preventing an argument.

Jessie and James thoughtfully studied Jane. They looked to each other gravely and Jessie broke away, nodding at James to go ahead and snatching a cookie before Ash and Pikachu could eat them all. James nodded back and turned to Jane.

"Sorry, what?"

Jessie laugh-snorted with her mouth full of cookie. Confused and offended, Jane looked to Ash to try to manage the strangers he had experience dealing with.

"This is serious," he said, "A man died four days ago; a Team Rocket member. And he's not the only one. All because this is happening."

"Pfft, good riddance," Jessie sneered and plucked the last cookie out of Pikachu's hand. She tossed it into her mouth and smirked at Pikachu's sad expression. James frowned at her behavior.

"Manners, Jessie. I don't feel much for the death of the Rocket member, either, but if you say you need help, I will assist you anyway I can, as long as our business and health are not in danger. Still, it's been years since we were part of Team Rocket. We know virtually nothing of their current workings and we no longer have access to the machines we used to chase you around in."

"And why do you trust us anyway?" Jessie added, cookie crumbs spilling from her mouth, "What makes you think we won't sell you out? We've gone straight, but we don't hate money."

Jane's grip on the edge of the couch tightened enough to pop her knuckles and almost puncture the leather. Ash could feel her breathing speed up and her body tense and knew she did not like what she just heard. If someone did not say something to calm her down soon, she would beat the two to unconsciousness and run away. Her legs shifted to a ready position and Ash jumped in with his saving argument.

"You wouldn't help Team Rocket. I know you. I've seen what you tried to do four years ago. The news never revealed the terrorist group attacking the old headquarters but I knew it had to be you. And... and if we really are trying to destroy them, why wouldn't you want to help us?"

A grin slowly spread on James' face and Jessie had to smile as well. Jane could not tell if these smiles were a good omen or a bad one, so she had to assume it was bad. She planned an attack that involved weaponizing the metal tray and slowly began to rise. Ash felt this and swiftly grabbed a teacup and placed it into her hands. He sternly and silently warned her against her plot with his eyes. It was becoming harder to trust this entire situation, but Jane relented and eased back into her seat, sipping at the teacup, only to discover there was nothing in it. James remedied that with the smile still on his face. She very nearly hurled the cup at him when he reached at her with the kettle. Ash spotted that as well, and was glad they were too dense or distracted to notice.

"Well done, twer- I mean, Ash," James began while pouring the tea, "We did struggle with them for a while. It lasted for about six months after we resigned."

"They started it," Jessie took over, "The first time we tried to get back onto the base they shot at us with rubber bullets."

"Naturally, we burned their guard towers down," James grinned.

"Then, they sent a goon to try to poison the water in the hotel we were in at the time, and we clipped the brake lines on all of their vehicles." James made a scissors motion with his fingers and laughed. Jessie playfully elbowed him and continued, "It went on like that until Giovanni died. The executives they put in charge called a truce and we didn't see the point of fighting anymore. Our business was taking off and we didn't need the stress."

Ash allowed them to go on with their story- that did not matter to him in the least- and now impatiently asked, "Does... that mean you're going to help us?"

Jessie crossed her arms at him. "What do you expect us to do? We don't want to be pulled into that again."

"You don't have to be," Ash offered, somewhat desperately, "Just give us some information on how we can get away from them or stop them somehow."

"Destroy them," Jane announced from her forgotten place on the couch. She had calmed down significantly during their story. Anyone who attacked Team Rocket was okay in her book.

"That's not such an easy thing to do," James explained, not condescendingly but in a tone that tried to show her the gravity of her desire. "Four years ago you would have needed an army. You're going to need a much bigger one, now. _We've_ cut Team Rocket out of our lives, but they've spread through all of Kanto and some of Johto. You know this. You know what you're up against."

"Well, what do we do then?" Jane asked, fairly combative. Jessie scowled at her tone and hotly crossed her arms and legs.

"Fine, you really want our help? Then you need to understand how they hunt. If they're still working by Giovanni's design, then it's the easiest thing to do. Now that he's dead, it might have changed, but I don't think by much."

"Oh," Ash interrupted, "Giovanni's not dead, by the way."

"What?" Jessie and James said together. All playfulness left their attitudes; their postures tensed to an almost threatening state.

"He's not dead," Jane repeated,"He faked that heart attack. I saw him with my own eyes two months ago."

The former Rockets looked to each other, wide eyed and calculating. James suddenly pulled out a small, electronic tablet from his pant pocket and a pen designed for it and furiously scribbled something down while Jessie attempted to distract the rest of the group.

"You're positive it was Giovanni?" she asked Jane in the threatening manner.

"Yes. It was him."

"That's interesting," she said more to herself than the teens. She trailed off, lost in her thoughts and mumbling to herself. She probably would have continued to go on like this if Jane had not loudly cleared her throat and brought her out of her faraway look.

"You said you're part of a legendary chase, right?" she asked, suddenly very focused on Jane.

"Yes?"

"That means you have something big after you. Like a flying base or a ship, something like that."

"Yeah, the 'Ghost Ship.'"

"They built it?" James exclaimed, torn away from his writing for the moment. "I never believed that would make it out of the blueprint stage!"

"I know that ship, there are planes on it," Jessie went on, ignoring him, and biting her thumbnail as she deliberated, "That's how they'll begin searching, with the planes. And then they'll send grunts into the areas they think are suspicious. Stay out of the planes' sights and get into no fly zones often. I think you know to keep out of the pokemon centers and police stations and the other places they've gotten into. Stay away from forests, too. They sweep those the most." Ash glanced at Jane who rigidly kept her gaze forward and pretended that she did not feel him looking at her. "The safest places are caves. It's not easy to drive in there and they're pretty much invisible to the aircraft. As for destroying the entire organization..." Jessie paused, a disturbed expression on her face. James had stopped writing by then. He took up the task of explaining to them when he noticed Jessie's uncomfortable fidgeting.

"That will be nothing short of war," he stated, stealthily slipping his hand into Jessie's and giving a comforting squeeze. "A large war. Maybe if you somehow disable the ship you can delay them until they assign a different one, but then you'll have that one to defeat and every one they send after that. Sadly, that's the only way you'll stop them. By slowly destroying each and every part of each and every base and also the headquarters where you'll then have to remove each and every leader from power."

Ash's stomach sank to a record low as James went on. This had taken a very unexpected and undesired turn. Stopping Team Rocket, disabling them, sure, those were words he understood and could handle. Words like "army" and "war" had no place in this. No place for them, no place for _him_. Next to him, Jane burned with a hostile fire. Her words were thick with scorn and malice.

"And we have to do it ourselves. That's what you want to say, isn't it? You can't be bothered with this." James' hand squeezed again and Jessie squeezed back. They both flinched at the condemning and true accusation but were determined to hold their positions.

"This is not our war anymore," he said morosely, "We're happy. We have our own lives and dreams, now. Team Rocket is far behind us."

"Not your war?" Jane scoffed, "Don't try to pretty it up, you don't give a damn about us, and you know what? I don't care. If you won't help us that's fine, where can _we_ start?"

"Start by building your numbers," he explained, genuinely still trying to help, "Pokemon, weapons, soldiers, anybody you can get. You're going to need them. And be careful who you trust. There are undercover agents everywhere. If one of them found out what you're planning, that will be the end of it. After you gather an army... well, what comes next is obvious..."

Jane rose off of the couch. She made a scene of turning her back to them and grabbing the satchel James had placed on the couch to their right. "Yeah. Thanks for that. I think we got all we came for, Ash. We should leave." Once she possessed her and Ash's bags, she passed them again to get to the doors. Ash hesitantly left his seat if only to not be left behind.

He would be lying if he said part of him did not _want_ to be left behind. For many reasons. To break free of this awful journey, to stay away from this word "war", but also- and he understood how strange this was- to stay with Jessie and James. To be with someone familiar, even if it was the two people who caused him the most grief in his childhood. They were from before all of this Besero happened and even further beyond that. They were before all of this Pokemon Champion happened, and everything no one warned him came with it. They were one of very few links he had with that time and as soon as he left, that link would be broken, like the others.

What was keeping him moving towards the door? What was it that kept him following her? It would not be so hard to stay here. He had already proven Team Rocket's plague-like avoidance of this place; he could probably talk her into letting him stay with the right words. But that would be the wrong thing to do. Wouldn't it?

"Ash, wait."

Did James really just say that or was his imagination getting stronger? Ash turned around and saw that James had risen from his seat. He _did_ call him. Ash stood there, not hearing Jane and Pikachu's departure through the doors and waited for the words that would give him reason to stay.

"What's wrong with your face?" James asked.

Ash waited for more, heart pounding in his ears. He waited for a good ten seconds before he realized he was waiting for nothing. And then a sick feeling overcame him. He had to get out of here now, before he could have any more of these thoughts. With two hands, he simultaneously pulled his bandanna down and the wrap on his head up, exposing the growths that brought him here. With no other words, he replaced his coverings and left the former Team Rocket members in their place of business and ran to catch up to Jane a block away.

When he was close enough, he could hear her muttering to herself with a good amount of anger. He caught the words "stupid" and "fine" the most often. She felt him slow down next to her and stopped the rambling, but did not lose the hateful expression she stared at the concrete with.

"It's ok, Ash," she said, trying not to sound angry with him, and handing him his backpack, "It still wasn't a mistake to go there. We learned a little more about Team Rocket, at least. _They_ won't help us, but we can find others and even if we don't, we'll do it ourselves if we have to. Me and you."

"Pika."

"And Pikachu, yeah. One by one. We'll take them out. An all out attack isn't possible right now, but we can get more information on the different bases; it shouldn't be that hard, it's not like they're hiding from the public all that much."

"Jane," Ash whispered, too low for her to hear right away, "Jane," he repeated until she stopped talking, "This is big."

"It is big," she immediately agreed,"And once we start winning and getting people to join us, it's gonna get even bigger." She clenched her fists and shook her arms at the sky. "Team Rocket's _finally _gonna get what they deserve! Once the first base goes down, everyone's gonna have to notice it and investigate and then all of their evil secrets will start to be revealed." She halted mid-step and gripped Ash by the shoulders. The look in her eyes could only be described as fiery determination and borderline mania that she tried with all of her might to shake into Ash. "You're going to help me, right? You won't leave? I need a pokemon champion more than anything. We can do this!"

He did not know how to answer her. These were the same questions he was asking himself at the exact same time. Her excitement should have turned him one way or the other, but he was still caught in the middle. One look at Pikachu told him that he agreed with her and _that _should have swayed him, but it just raised more doubt. Something this big could not be rushed into, right? He was allowed to think about this, to stay on the fence for as long as he needed, to push it away until he was ready.

Whether he was ready for it or not, Ash felt a familiar and terrifying sensation. From past Jane, someone wordlessly and faintly called him. Jane turned and faced the direction it came from then turned back to Ash to see he was also watching the area.

"You heard it, too?" she asked excitedly, "You can feel it now. I knew you would grow into it! Let's go! It's close!." She let go of Ash's shoulders to grab one of his arms and pulled him in the direction of the call. He immediately yanked his arm away.

"We're going towards it? What if it's another hunter?"

Jane gave up trying to reach for him and instead took a few steps away, almost bouncing with anticipation.

"It's a new one! It just changed, I can tell. Let's go!"

Ash was still overcome with anxiety about many things. Luckily his feet moved without him telling them to. He ran after Jane and willed his mind to stop thinking, to barge into this new development just this once. He did not even think that the route they were taking was a familiar one.

xxxxx

Jessie and James were still in the waiting area of the salon, James standing, Jessie sitting. After Ash walked out, they stayed this way, stunned silent until they heard the back door open and small footsteps traveling through the grooming area.

"Meow, I'm back!" The talking, white cat pokemon walked over to the hair drying counter on two legs. With him was a white cloth sack that looked just as big as him, but much weightier. "This sack's heavy, why don't ya give me a hand?"

James went to help his other partner in the trio, but Jessie stayed on the couch and stared at the large J painted on her glass doors. "Do you think we should be doing more?" she said loud enough for James and Meowth to hear.

"I don't see ya helpin' at all!" Meowth snapped back as he and James sorted through the contents of the bag. James shushed him.

"We're needed here, Jessie," he consoled, still working with Meowth's haul, "And I don't think they told us the full story. Who knows what trouble they got themselves into?" Meowth blinked at both of them, confused.

"Whatta ya talkin' about?" he asked anxiously, "What'd I miss?" Jessie snapped out of her depressive state and went to help them, not happy but not brooding. She pushed Meowth's head down in greeting.

"The twerp was here," she said, dodging the claws swiping at her.

"Tha twerp? What'd he want?"

"He's in trouble with our old employers," James answered, "It has something to do with the legendary, Besero. I'm not sure what's happening, but he wanted to know how to defeat Team Rocket. For good." Meowth slowly lowered his paws and watched his teammates work distractedly. They were thinking the same thing he was, he knew it. It was up to him to bring it out, though. He picked up his share and counted and re-counted as he lost his focus multiple times.

"We goin' ta do somethin' about it?" he said to no one in particular. Jessie slammed her share down and shouted, finally releasing the pent up emotion she held in since before Ash left.

"No! Even if Giovanni isn't dead, we have our family to think of! We're successful business men, and Team Rocket _and_ the twerp can suck on that and die! I'm not jeopardizing this again! _We're _not!"

"Not dead?"

"Yes, Meowth, Team Rocket has been keeping a few secrets, apparently," James calmly picked up Jessie's strewn share and placed it back into her hands. He held on when she tried to take it and forced her to look at him. "Jessie, I think it's wise if we stay out of this, too. But... Just in case we find ourselves in the middle of the old struggle, we should maybe watch the growth of Team Rocket. This meeting with the twerp may come in handy later. Some goons might show up with questions."

"You're not saying sell the twerp out, are you?" she hissed, shocked, "After he trusted us?"

"We need to look out for ourselves. That's what I'm saying."

Jessie stared wide eyed at her partner, stunned at his willingness to betray one of their oldest acquaintances, but a tiny smile curled at the edges of her mouth. "We'll never change, will we?" she sighed.

"Why fix something that isn't broken?" James retorted with a dramatic flip of his hair, "Speaking of not broken, this is an impressive grab, Meowth! You haven't slowed down at all. What bank was it this time?"

Meowth made a show of fanning himself with a portion of his share of the thousands of dollars he had stolen and casually replied, "That Second Bank of Cerulean we hit last January. Always go after tha Rocket banks when we can, right?"

"Right!" Jessie and James cheered, together. "Who says we have to go completely straight? We're like the criminal Robin Hoods!" James went on to say.

"Cept' tha poor can take cares'a themselves! Hey! Who said we was splittin' this up evenly?" Meowth growled and jumped on the pile of money, protectively, claws extended. "I did all tha work! I get tha bigga' share!" Both Jessie and James jumped up and took turns stomping on the cat pokemon, who held fast on the money.

"We do all the work around here! You mangy, miserable, mongrel! EEK!" The two humans screeched in pain as Meowth suddenly sprang up and delivered four deep scratches to each of their faces.

"Stop it with tha alliteration already! You'll make me scratch my _own _face off! ACK!"

Jessie pounded on Meowth repeatedly while James lamented over cuts and applied antibacterial cream with his fingers.

"How many times do I have to tell you NOT THE FACE!"

"Whatta ya need it for anyhows? You ain't got the hair to look like a girl anyways! You should just burn it all off again!"

"Uh oh..." James mumbled and took off for the bathroom with his share of the money before the Jessie explosion could damage him or his take. Customers at the seafood restaurant across the street would later tell the police that the odd, pink building trembled twice before the red neon apostrophe and the bigger "S" that helped make the word "Jessie's" suddenly fell and demolished a passing orange salesman's cart.

Xxxxx

Underneath a practiced bored expression, a deeply embedded frustration tugged at the sanity of a young scientist strolling through the corridors of the highest deck of the Ghost Ship. Recent news, status changes on the ship, and "encouraging" Team Rocket slogans played lowly in a loop on the speaker system throughout his walk. This could be- and was- tuned out easily, but it certainly did not help his psyche. And the weekly meetings where obvious propaganda would be spouted in front of the entire crew aboard were also part of the Team Rocket practices he was less than happy with. But, the damp trumped it all. No matter where he went on the ship, what level, room, or lab, the moist air clung to his skin in the same unwanted, highly irritating way Team Rocket reminded everybody exactly who they worked for everyday. Just the damp was enough to snap.

But, where else could he get paid so much for doing his and Doctor Namba's research? He would be stuck on this god-forsaken ship until further notice, but he would be retired once this whole thing was over. And nowhere else would he find the kind of privilege this ship offered.

He approached the captain's quarters in a few minutes. Not surprisingly, everyone else had already arrived and they were not pleased with his late arrival, but no one would say anything to him. There were three others in the large room. The Captain at his desk, a grunt in the straight-back chair across from him, and a standing blonde woman he had never seen before but felt she knew him well enough to scowl at his arrival. She had a strange spiral pigtail hairstyle that looked far too young for her. He gave her a smile and a nod and was pleased with her disgusted look.

Oh, he had overlooked one.

"Where's the subject?" he asked the highest authority figure in the room: the Captain. And the Captain frowned at the familiar way he spoke to him, and also his lack of apology for his tardiness. The three Houndoom behind him picked up on his irritation and bared their teeth at the man in the dirty white lab coat.

"Be patient, Hiro. I decide when she is needed," Carl Kurtz, Captain of the Sagittarius- otherwise known as the Ghost Ship- challenged from his desk.

Hiro Nankai smirked at the young captain while inside he squirmed at being called by his first name. He wanted badly to correct him, but a reprimand at this time would greatly interfere with his studies, so he merely smiled at the man. Carl Kurtz frowned back at him and smoothed his short black hair. He removed his light blue eyes from the scientist and hit a button on the telephone that buzzed in the two grunts that were holding the subject in an adjoining room.

"I wanted you to be here for this," Carl started, walking out from behind his desk, "So that you have a goal when you have her later."

Hiro more or less ignored the Captain, and kept his dark brown eyes on the metal door that the subject would come in from. A few seconds later, two grunts walked in dragging a limp, blonde girl that Hiro recognized. Following them was a trail of tiny flecks of blood spotting the hardwood.

The scientist fought his annoyance but still spoke with a biting tone. "Three-One? You're interrupting my research for Three-One? Where's _her _Doctor?"

"You will no longer speak to me in that manner, Hiro," Carl quickly replied, standing as tall as he could and failing to everyone-except the subject- by three inches, "Doctor Koya was called to Johto, and Namba wanted you to take over for him for the time being. These are also Archer's orders, so I suggest you resolve any issues you have with this on your own time. Wake her up."

The grunt holding the girl's left arm shook her, but received no response. Both grunts dropped her at the same time and ordered her to stand. The one on the left said, "She's not unconscious, sir. Stop playing around!" He jumped back when the girl suddenly pushed herself up into a kneeling position, laughing. Blood trickled from her nose and one corner of her mouth. She mockingly saluted the Captain and fell against the leg of the grunt, either dizzy or exhausted or both. She was kicked off to the floor where she finished her greeting.

"Ahoy, Captain! What be yer business with me now, yarrr?"

Carl was outwardly unfazed by her mocking, but he was put-off by her attitude and was not willing to play her games. Instead of humor the subject, he decided to return to his desk and start with the grunt sitting across from him. "You know why you're here."

The Rocket in the chair adjusted the bandages on his head and nodded.

""Yes, Captain" will suffice," the much higher ranking Rocket went on, "I have your written report, but now that your detector is here, I want you to repeat your story." He reached for a pen and poised it over the notepad already laying on his desk. "Go on."

The red-head grunt scratched at his pant leg nervously. His gaze switched from the intent stare of Carl Kurtz, to the unknown blonde's behind him and down to the Houndooms who, like the woman, were staring at the subject. He hesitantly recounted the story that left him with a concussion, two broken teeth, and other injuries. "After they picked up something in Viridian City me, Jeremy, and Caleb went down with the detector to look for whatever was beeping, but when we got there, she wasn't feeling anything anymore, so we went into the forest and searched until about nine or ten. We were close to Pewter so we went to the pokemon center to take a break. At around midnight or one we start up again in the forest and a little later, the detector tells us that whatever beeped was in there now and they might be sleeping so we left the truck behind and split up to surround them. I don't know what happened with Caleb, but he found them first and they knocked him down sometime before Jeremy showed up too, but-"

"Stop," Carl commanded. He jotted down a few more notes then looked up to the grunt who nervously looked down at his boots. "I spoke with Caleb Jackson. He says he has very little memory of the night. Why is that?"

"It's...probably cuz they hit him on the head so hard. When Jeremy found him, he was out and when I got to them he was still out. He says the girl hit him."

Having answered the question, he stopped, afraid that he might mess up what the Captain was writing, but really afraid of punishment and the Houndooms. Carl wrote one word down and asked him to continue.

"O-ok... Jeremy was tied up by the kid's Ivysaur when I found him."

"What kid?"

"Uh, the boy one. It was his Ivysaur, I think. Um... well I tried to tell the detector to shock them and she wouldn't listen to me," his eyes briefly darted down and to the side where Lin laid on the floor three feet behind him, and then he went on, "So, I armed the bomb and that's when they got into a fight with the kid's Pikachu. Then the other one, the girl, comes out of nowhere and hits me with a bat and then things get fuzzy. Next thing, the detector is waking me up and telling me that Jeremy died and the kids killed him."

"Which I don't believe for one second," Carl said and wrote one last thing down before he folded the paper and tucked it into his jacket pocket.

"Yeah I don't believe it neither. And I think she stole the remotes, too."

"She did, indeed, Charlie," the Captain confirmed, sporting a ghost of a smile. The three Houndooms loosened their aggressive stances at the same time. To Charlie, it was a very eerie sight. "Can you describe the two runners you encountered?"

"Uh... I didn't see the one that hit me. Caleb said she had a hat on and a dress and she was short and skinny, he didn't get a good look at the boy. It was dark, but I think he had black hair and a horn on his forehead. That's all I can remember."

"What about you, Three-One?" Lin did not react to being called. This prompted Carl to gesture for the grunts to bring her closer. They lifted her up by her arms and dragged her a few feet closer to the desk where they dropped her to the ground again. Charlie scooted his chair over to the left and carefully watched Lin's movements. "Three-One, what do you remember about the runners?"

Charlie and the two grunts flinched when Lin woozily picked herself up and dropped back down to her knees. She smiled at the Captain first and then shut one eye and spoke in a gruff, heavily accented voice.

"Arr, me hearin' 'tain't what it once was, Captain. Mind repeatin' yourself for this humble cabin boy? Oh, hey, Mr. Charlie," she greeted when she noticed the grunt. Her accent and pirate act was dropped. "Ew... Six-Two really fucked you up. Ha!"

Doctor Hiro Nankai had grown tired of standing quietly in the corner. He silently and quickly rushed up behind Lin and the grunts and landed a punch to the back of her skull. The blow knocked her forward where she met with the edge of the desk and received a second hit to her head. That is where she stayed, gripping the desk and bleeding on it and the floor in front of it. The grunts reflexively brandished their batons to the scientist, who calmly adjusted his glasses, ignoring them.

"Answer the question Three-One, I want to get out of here," he glanced at the stunned Captain and blonde woman and shrugged, but offered no further explanation or apology. "I'm not looking forward to our time together, either, but there's no point in drawing the process out."

Lin blinked away the blood flowing steadily from her forehead and trained her focus on the blurry and spinning doctor.

"Have you been here this whole time, Hiro? You need to cough or something..." Hiro answered with a loud slap to her cheek that sent her back to the floor.

"Doctor Nankai," he replied, emotionless. That was when Carl decided to re-assume control over his interrogation.

"Will you stop attacking her long enough for me to ask a question, Hiro?" he snapped, glaring at the doctor. He said his first name on purpose, Hiro knew that, and that was infuriating. He should slap him silent, as well. Show him how useless his "intimidating" guard pokemon are when his hands are crushing his trachea. The three Houndoom seemed to read his mind. They each took a half step forward with their front legs and growled at him. He grinned at the thought and stepped backwards a couple of times and lowered his head as the best show of apology anyone would ever see from him. Carl watched him back away and then ordered the grunts to lift Lin up. He ordered Charlie to go to his restroom and grab a towel to wipe his desk off with. Charlie gratefully left his chair and took his time searching for this towel.

"You said Six-Two," he told Lin, watching her dazed attempts at focusing on him, "Who is Six-Two? She's one of the escapees, isn't she? Which one?" Lin laughed weakly and let her head sag down both to stop the room from spinning and to keep any more blood from getting into her eyes.

"I don't know anymore. I think my brain's all scrambled now. You can all thank Hiro for that everybody. It's Hiro's fault_. Hiro._" Hiro smiled at this. If she kept this up, he might enjoy being stuck with her. Carl was less happy with her attitude.

"You know your punishment isn't over," he threatened, "The good Doctor will take over that after this is done. We know you killed Jeremy. If you cooperate, we'll leave your punishment at a day. If not, then you will become very acquainted with Doctor Nankai over the next week. Now, I'll give you the chance to tell me who Six-Two is, but if I have to look her up, I'm adding a day to your punishment."

"I know the drill, shorty," Lin responded, stronger. She was able to focus on Carl now and not have him spin on her. "But you don't know your own subjects. I guess that's the price you pay to keep your hands clean. I can see _you_ not knowing, but Hiro over there doesn't have an excuse. He was her doctor."

All eyes focused on the scientist. The sudden attention awakened something feral in him and he wanted to strike Lin again for making him feel so uncomfortable, but he was also interested in this Six-Two he was supposed to know. His delayed reaction was to cross his arms nonchalantly and raise an apathetic eyebrow.

"I don't know what she's talking about," he claimed. Lin grinned broadly at him.

"You don't remember your baby? Your pride and joy? Your little Dratini?"

Hiro's eyes widened and he unconsciously uncrossed his arms and stepped forward. It was the most expression anyone in the room had ever witnessed in him. He remembered his Dratini, but not as Six-Two. He never called her by her number like the rest of the monsters in the cells. Three-One had found her. And she let her get away. The rest of the day will be enjoyable, after all.

Carl also remembered the Dratini, but he held no strong emotions other than relief that at least one of the escapees had been located.

"So, the escapee is still in Kanto," he reasoned. He addressed Charlie who had cleaned up the blood much faster than he had searched for the towel. "I want you to tell Kaede this information. She is to double the fly overs and question every Team Rocket member in Pallet Town, Viridian City, Celadon City, Cerulean City, and Saffron City. Question the league, too. I want every member in Kanto to know what she looks like and to be on high alert. She's very good at escaping. Go, now. Wait, add Vermillion to that list, too. Go."

Charlie hastily bowed and sped out of the door, glad to be out that situation. When he was gone Carl returned to the interrogation.

"There is a boy traveling with her. What does he look like?" Lin pointed at the door with her thumb.

"Charlie told you."

"I want to hear your description."

"Not much to add to that, chief," she replied, and puffed out her cheeks, "Black hair, horn, clothes. Underneath that was probably boy parts. Can't be sure, though. We might be looking for a eunuch." Carl inhaled deeply and held off on his next question while he calmed himself down.

"You spoke to him. What did he say to you? Did you find out his name?"

"No. And I asked so nicely, too." She tilted her head to the side and looked up at the ceiling as if reminiscing.

"Is there anything else you want to tell me?"

"Yeah, you should grow a beard. You look like you're fifteen."

The blonde behind the Captain fought a smile, and the grunts dared not react at all to that comment. Carl reacted by coolly straightening his jacket, but his ears burned red. The subject of his looks was the only way to get such a reaction out of him, and he damned whoever let that secret out.

"We're done here." His voice strained with hostility. He spun his chair around to face the large portrait of Giovanni that hung behind his desk. "She's yours now, Nankai."

The scientist bowed and informed the grunts to follow him to his lab. They were not pleased to hear this, but they obeyed and said nothing. Lin whistled a happy tune the entire way.

* * *

Ok, so I'm a few days late, I know... but it's pretty good for me! Once I get used to this deadline thing I'll get the chapters out harder better faster stronger, you'll see.

I fail so fucking hard I'm sorry...

So, this chapter is just like a building chapter, just an A to B thing, and honestly, I kinda don't like it, but it was necessary. I didn't know another way to write it, anyways. And I wanted to add more, but my chapters are already ridiculously long, so I decided to cut it. My partial reveal at Ash's peculiar behavior and the new huemon(term stolen from an awesome reviewer) will have to wait another chapter :[

Review please, I'll die without your review and do you really want to be responsible for that?

P.S. I LOVE TEAM ROCKET. Can you tell?


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